Bjørn's Multilingual Blog

Institutional Architecture of the European Union II:How the European Commission is appointed

2012-01-29T10:48:00.014+01:00

The European Council appoints a Commission President, usually among a current or recent Head of Government in one of the member states, and taking into account the latest European Parliament elections. The appointed President is subject to approval by the Parliament. Should it reject the proposal, the European Council must appoint a new one within a month. Once the nominated President is approved by vote of the European Parliament, and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is appointed, the President asks the governments of each member state, except her or his own and that of the High Representative, to suggest one Commissioner.

When portfolios are distributed among these candidates, the proposed Commission, also known as ‘the College’, must be appointed by the Council. Then, the European Parliament holds hearings at which its Members can ask questions to each Commissioner candidate and to the appointed Commission President. The Parliament may approve the entire prospect Commission or reject the entire prospect Commission, though not single members. However, should the Parliament reject the proposed set of Commissioners, the hearings will have shown who are the candidates it does not want to approve. In this case, the designated Commission President will ask the member state(s) who have suggested the candidate(s) in question to make a new choice, and again, the proposed Commission in its entirety has to be approved by the Parliament.

When the Parliament has voted for a College, the European Council puts it into office. The European Commission has a standard term of five years. Should a Commission be forced to resign, as it happened to the Santer Commission, the new College is appointed by the same procedure as described above, for the remainder of the current term.

Read more on the Wikipedia subpage on the appointment of the European Commission.

by Bjørn Clasen

Institutional Architecture of the European Union I:European Council

2012-01-28T15:33:00.014+01:00

Today’s blogpost and those of the three following days continue in the sign of the European Union. More precisely, they will — very briefly — explain some European Union institutions.

The European Council appoints a Commission President, usually among a current or recent Head of Government in one of the member states. The appointed President is subject to approval by the European Parliament. Should the Parliament reject the proposal, the European Council must appoint a new one within a month. Once the nominated President is approved by vote of the European Parliament, and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is appointed, the President asks the governments of each member state, except her or his own and that of the High Representative, to suggest one Commissioner.

When portfolios are distributed among these candidates, the proposed Commission, also known as ‘the College’, must be appointed by the Council. Then, the European Parliament holds hearings at which its Members can ask questions to each Commissioner candidate and to the appointed Commission President. The Parliament may approve the entire prospect Commission or reject the entire prospect Commission, though not single members. However, should the Parliament reject the proposed set of Commissioners, the hearings will have shown who are the candidates it does not want to approve. In this case, the designated Commission President will ask the member state(s) who have suggested the candidate(s) in question to make a new choice, and again, the proposed Commission in its entirety has to be approved by the Parliament.

When the Parliament has voted for a College, the European Council puts it into office. The European Commission has a standard term of five years. Should a Commission be forced to resign, as it happened to the Santer Commission, the new College is appointed by the same procedure as described above, for the remainder of the current term.

You can read more on the European Council page on the official European Union website and the Wikipedia subpages on the President of the European Council.

History of European Integration V:Amsterdam and Nice Treaty

2012-01-26T19:58:00.006+01:00

The fifth and last short text of this assignment is about the treaties laying the ground for enlarging the European Union East and South. Thank you for reading, and for quoting correctly.

Both the Treaty of Amsterdam, signed in 1997 and entered into force in 1999, and the Nice Treaty, signed in 2001 and entered into force in 2003, are amendments of the Treaty on European Union. They were designed to prepare for a vast enlargement that was approaching realisation in the course of the decade following the collapse of the authoritarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. A European Union of twice as many member states called for modifications of the decision-making procedures in order to stay effective.

Changes were to a large extent of a mathematical nature, in terms of vote weightings and numbers of European Parliament members per country. In the centre of these discussions — or battles — were the balance between big and small member states, as well as internally between the big member states, notably founding members France and the meanwhile reunified and now thus much larger Germany.^{1 2}

None of the two treaties really managed to provide a satisfactory framework for the wished-for improved effectiveness. That is how talks of a European Union constitution started and ultimately the Lisbon Treaty became the new legal framework for continuous European integration.

by Bjørn Clasen, 2011

Sources
¹ Hartmut Marhold: History of European Integration, 5.1.2.2 — Monetary Union, Amsterdam Treaty and “left overs”, and 5.2.1.2 — In the lowlands of integration policy: the Nice Treaty (Course text for the participants of the Certificate and first year of the Master programme of the Centre international de formation européenne
² Historiasiglo20.org: The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997)

History of European Integration IV:Maastricht Treaty

2012-01-25T19:54:00.001+01:00

The fourth part of my short account of European Union treaties. Introducing: the €uro!

Whereas the Single European Act had bound together the three European treaties, the Maastricht Treaty continued the integration — into a union, which is why its official name is ‘Treaty on European Union’. Although amended by the Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon Treaties, the Maastricht Treaty is largely what the present-day European Union is based upon. Not only did it introduce the three-pillar structure — adding the Common Foreign and Security Policy as well as Justice and Home Affairs to the already existing European Community — it also established the criteria for taking the European Monetary Union to its ultimate third stage, i.e. introducing a common currency, the euro.¹

The Treaty on European Union was signed on 7 February 1992 and entered into force only 20 months later on 1 November 1993 after quite a bit of nail-biting over its ratification in several member states. Notably Denmark and the United Kingdom were granted exceptions from certain parts of the Treaty.² For example, the United Kingdom was exempt from being bound by the social dimension,³ which, along with the extension of the European Union’s competencies to other fields such as education and culture, health and environmental issues, further increased the common European influence on aspects close to the citizens’ everyday life.

by Bjørn Clasen, 2011

Sources
¹ euro know: Maastricht Treaty
² BBC News A-Z of Europe: Maastricht Treaty
³ Jens Engelbredt: Den Europæiske Unions Historie — Den Sociale Dimension

History of European Integration III:Single European Act

2012-01-24T19:45:00.000+01:00

This next step in the European Union’s development went towards a real internal market. Something we — more or less — take for granted today. If you want to use parts of the text, thank you for quoting accordingly.

By the mid-eighties it was high time for the European Communities, meanwhile enlarged three times and now counting twelve member states, to take the internal market into its decisive phase. This was done through the Single European Act, signed in Luxembourg and Den Haag in 1986, and entering into force the following year.¹

A main purpose of the Single European Act was to have a fully functioning internal market by the end of 1992.² The means was to boost decision-making in the European Communities, by adding areas for which only a qualified majority within the Council of Ministers was needed in order to pass legislation, as well as by giving the European Parliament more power. Also, the European Court of First Instance was established,³ and the European Council was officialised.⁴

With these institutional modifications, the Single European Act was a major turn towards stronger integration and away from national sovereignty. Facing the ever-increasing competitiveness from especially the USA and East Asia, a common approach from the member states was needed to keep up with these and possible new competitors on the world trade scene, and to avoid a new crisis like in the 1970s.⁵

by Bjørn Clasen, 2011

Sources
¹ Wikipedia article: Single European Act
² The Europa website: Summaries of EU legislation — The Single European Act
³ Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe: The Single European Act
⁴ Historiasiglo20.org: The Single European Act and the road toward the Treaty of the European Union (1986-1992)
⁵ Hartmut Marhold: History of European Integration, 4.2.1.2 — The “Single European Act”: A revolution in disguise (1985/87) (Course text for the participants of the Certificate and first year of the Master programme of the Centre international de formation européenne

History of European Integration II:Rome Treaties

2012-01-23T19:22:00.001+01:00

The second short text on the European Union is about the Rome Treaties, a milestone towards integration.

Signed in 1957 by the same six countries and entered into force on 1 January 1958, the two Treaties of Rome founded the European Economic Community and Euratom. It is in the former that for the first time, we see the ‘four freedoms’ that became crucial to European integration: the free movement of goods, services, persons and capital.¹ In other words, this is where a common market — in principle within all trade areas, not just coal and steel — is established and converting the territories of the six member states into a single customs area without internal customs borders and a common external customs border.

Although the base was already established with the European Coal and Steel Community, it is also with the Treaties of Rome that most of the European institutions we know today were set up:

‘The institutional balance is based on a triangle consisting of the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament, all three of which are called upon to work together. The Council prepares the standards, the Commission drafts the proposals and the Parliament plays an advisory role. Another body is also involved in the decision-making procedure in an advisory capacity, namely the Economic and Social Committee.’²

All subsequent treaties increasing European integration are amendments to the Treaties of Rome. Even more than the Treaty of Paris which marked the first steps, they can thus be regarded as the base foundation of what is now the European Union of 27 countries.

by Bjørn Clasen, 2011

Sources
¹ The Europa website: Summaries of EU legislation — Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, EEC Treaty — original text (non-consolidated version)
² Ibidem: ‘Institutions’, first paragraph

History of European Integration I:A short account of the European Community of Coal and Steel

2012-01-22T19:02:00.016+01:00

It’s EU time. Over the next couple of weeks, I will post short texts on different aspects of the European Union. They were all part of some small assignments that I wrote in December. Please be aware of the sources, quote correctly, including from ‘my own’ texts. And if you have questions, just comment on the post. Most of all: Enjoy. You might learn something :)

We start of with, well, the first treaty.

The European Community of Coal and Steel was established by the Treaty of Paris, which was signed in 1951 and entered into force in 1952. The signatory countries were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands.¹ It came about in the aftermath of World War II, which had left the European continent and the European people split between hope for a more peaceful future and a state of fear of another devastating conflict. Armed conflict requires weapons, and at the time, a country’s ability to produce weapons depended especially on two factors: Access to coal and access to steel.²

This is why France’s Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, came up with a proposal to put the production of both these resources under a common ‘High Authority’ ³, instead of keeping the control of the production nationalised. Schuman presented his idea in a declaration on 9 May 1950. To this day, 9 May is celebrated in European circles as ‘Europe Day’, marking the very beginnings of what has since become a tight and binding co-operation between 27 European countries so far.

The European Community of Coal and Steel was an indirect success. During the first couple of decades of its existence, coal production in the member states went down, and the increase in steel production was nowhere as strong as in for example Japan or the Soviet Union. However, trade between the member states was strengthened, and the European Community of Coal and Steel proved to be the first step in a common market, which kept growing both in terms of trade areas and geographically. Moreover, a series of welfare measures for mine workers marked the first steps of a new integrated solidarity between member states. But most importantly, peace was kept in Europe.⁴

The Treaty of Paris expired in 2002 and, meanwhile having been integrated into the Maastricht Treaty and subsequent European Union treaties, it was not renewed.

by Bjørn Clasen, 2011

Sources
¹ The Europa website: Summaries of EU legislation — Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC Treaty
² Hartmut Marhold: History of European Integration, 2.1.2.1 — Jean Monnet’s Plan, origins and circumstances (Course text for the participants of the Certificate and first year of the Master programme of the Centre international de formation européenne)
³ The Schuman Declaration
⁴ The history of the ECSC: Good times and bad, by Gilbert Mathieu (Le Monde, 9 May 1970)

Forfrosne roser

2012-01-21T23:15:00.000+01:00

Her er så den anden af mine mildest talt ufærdige historier, jeg fandt i nogle gamle digitale gemmer. Faktisk er det kun en indledning. Har du lyst til at skrive videre på den, eller har du blot en ide til det videre forløb, er du yderst velkommen til at kommentere.

Det var en af disse dage, hvor temperaturen lå, så rimkrystallerne i de vinterdvalende græstotter hverken kunne fryses helt hårde eller smelte nok til at flyde ud. Faktisk smuldrede de ved de mindste vindpust langs den hårde jordoverflade, selvom vinden slet ikke var så råkold og hård, som den kan være, når vinteren er begyndt at vise tænder.

Han sad nede ved fjorden, på dét sted bag den gamle fabrik, hvor man kunne køre lige ud i vandet — eller nu på isen — hvis man havde for meget fart på før det snævre sving. I vintertågen flød alle omgivelserne ud i ét hernede. Den halvfrosne fjord, betonkanten på bredden, den sandgrå fabriksmur, de træer, der også om sommeren var stort set nøgne, himlen — det hele var indhyllet i en snigende dis af rim og støv.

”Spontan Fiktion”(En eksperimentalfortælling af Bjørn HBC)

2012-01-20T23:08:00.005+01:00

I nogle gamle digitale gemmer fandt jeg et par historier, som jeg var begyndt på, men så heller ikke mere. Her er den ene. Har du lyst til at skrive videre på den, eller har du blot en ide til det videre forløb, er du yderst velkommen til at kommentere.

1.

Sveden piblede ned fra hans tindinger, ned over kinderne. Efter tre kvarter i romaskinen, ved håndvægtene og på løbebåndet var ømheden i leddene ved at bide fra sig. Han slukkede for løbebåndet og lagde for første gang mærke til, at det var et Carl Zeiss-fabrikat. Mærkeligt, tænkte han ganske flygtigt, jeg troede sgu kun, at de lavede kikkerter.

Under omklædningsrummets hårtørrer fik han så sin vision for første gang. Han så denne kvinde med langt, lyst hår stå midt i rummet. Hun smilede til ham — vistnok — men da han kiggede op, var hun væk. Hm. Sær dag. Først havde han lagt mærke til, hvilket firma, der havde fabrikeret løbebåndet. En maskine, som han havde brugt flere gange om ugen i næsten trekvart år — og netop i dag opdagede han maskinens navn. Og nu altså en smilende blondine, som var i mændenes omklædningsrum, og som ikke var der alligevel. You need sleep, Ben!

Egentlig var Ben, hvad mange kunne finde på at kalde ”ganske almindelig”. Benny Nicolaj Jørgensen, sidst i 20’erne, ungkarl, boede i en lejlighed i en Odense-forstad. Og — okay — han var arbejdsløs, men dét var jo for så vidt også ”almindeligt”. Han havde mistet sit job for små to måneder siden — et job han havde haft i otte år! Pludselig var han blevet fritstillet, som det hed, og han havde været fuldstændigt ligeglad med hvorfor, men det var vistnok det sædvanlige med, at firmaet flyttede til Portugal.

Ben faldt i søvn, så snart han var hjemme fra kondicentret.

2.

Biip-biip, biip-biip… Det irriterende, digitale vækkeur bippede Ben ud af hans søvn. Klokken var 8.30, så han havde sovet hele fjorten timer! Lidt tummelumsk og uden tidsfornemmelse vaklede han ud i køkkenet, men gik hurtigt tilbage til soveværelset igen, for det var hans time manager, han ville kigge i. Jo, den lå på natbordet. Han tog den, men inden han fik den åbnet, syntes han pludselig, at han havde set noget mærkeligt ude i gangen, da han var gået tilbage fra køkkenet. Det var bare først nået fra hans søvnige nethinder gennem hans forvirrede hjernefiltre og frem til opmærksomheden nu.

Ben flintrede ud i gangen — jo, ganske rigtigt: katten lå og var død! Den lå på måtten foran indgangsdøren. Ben var stadig rundt på gulvet, for i stedet for at kigge nærmere på katten, gik han ind til sofabordet og tænkte på, at det også var den satans dørmåtte. Han havde aldrig gidet at investere i en måtte, men når nu han havde fået en af mosteren i gave for nylig, kunne han jo lige så godt bruge den.

Der var ikke skyggen af rationalitet i Bens tankegang, for måtten havde jo ikke andet med kattens død at gøre, end at katten lå på måtten. Men han undersøgte hverken kattens død, blondinen, der ikke var der, eller mærket på løbebåndet nærmere.

3.

(ja… hvad sker der videre?)

Aggression in Albania XIII:Everybody who is exposed to political violence, is psychologically traumatized

2012-01-19T21:36:00.000+01:00

The conclusion to the essay on Albania in 1997, as given by the author, a 17-year old who wishes to remain anonymous.

I believe it is true, with certain exceptions, but it is true. I have been there, I have seen violence, I have witnessed it and I know what dimensions it can reach, what consequences it can produce. I have seen my nation on the flares of monstrosity as an observer, as an Albanian and as a terrified human being. I have tried to give a name to this creature of evil, but I could not. I have tried to give a reason, an explanation why we chose the worst way of reacting, but I couldn’t, till I understood that we were TRAUMATIZED.

Why all this violence? Was this a response toward the violence to which the Albanians were submitted during the past? More than 3400 people were dead during 97. Can any fact justify this?

I think any psychologist would be more than happy to study the patterns of behavior, the social structure of the Albanian society, the political influences and the psychology and mentality of the Albanians. All human, social, political, and cultural processes developed in Albania are singular and unique phenomena with incredibly speedy paces.

Aggression in Albania XII: December ’90… (continued)

2012-01-18T21:31:00.001+01:00

The touching and disquieting essay about Albania, written by a 17-year old, is reaching a climax, building a bridge of explanation between the 1990 events and those in 1997.

Now I ask, in front of all the atrocities witnessed, in front of the discrimination and disdain that human beings were faced with, how were they supposed to act against? How were they supposed to oppose and raise their voice for justice?
I remember the frustration of my parents; their fear to talk in front of us, because of a word that might leave the doors of my home; a word that could send my father in jail; that could humiliate and destruct my mother. I remember my father fearing the worst for us and working his all to prevent it. He was a high rank officer and a professor, and for this he was always under surveillance. I remember my mother sewing clothes staying up all night in order to save some money for her three children. She was head of finances and yet she couldn’t provide all necessary things for the family. I am not talking about luxury. I am talking about necessary living.

Another question comes to my mind. Was that political violence? Was that a massive collective psychological trauma inflicted to my people? Because if it is, I presume I can justify my country for being what it is, for being the way it is, and I can justify my people of being who they are. But does the world think the same as I?
Maybe so far, I have exaggerated with the description I depicted on the past systems. But you can’t know what a nation is, unless you know its past. And you can’t know a human being, unless you know his past, his strivings in life, his emotions and his feelings; unless you know him.

Almost every Albanian has faced political violence, be it aggressive, passive or indirect. What were the consequences of this violence?

Let’s face ’97 once more. The nation was separated into two major poles or forces, the Albanian Democratic Party and the Albanian Socialist Party. In the mean time, the nation was separated into two major geographical zones, north and south. A strange and unexpected phenomenon was created. The north opposed to south and vice versa. On the other hand, political poles had a membership of militants. Organized crime and gangs were spread all over Albania. It was unsafe everywhere. The public order was totally reversed. Anarchy and chaos prevailed all over.

People started to hate each other for their political belonging. It was so fearful to see that we had become enemies of ourselves. Political polarization was the cause of all that. It was a similar effect to the arithmetic progression of a chain reaction. It started from the leadership. Leaders of both parties were not fully aware that any statement or stand they could take would create an increasing reaction of masses against each other. One was either a militant, or a complete ignorer of politics. Chances to find persons that might enter the second group were very small. Violence was exercised from militant groups toward each other. Opposition and position were in “fighting positions” all the time.

The anarchy of each day was terrifying those who were longing to see again some good and shiny days. But it seemed as if the days to come were going to be gloomy days for the Albanians.

The collective trauma accumulated for 50 years, was now provoked and fueled by the recent events. It was a massive “flashback” to Albania. A flashback experienced during the clashes of ’91 violently crushed by the dying regime of dictatorship. A subsequent traumatizing collective experience that the Albanians lived throughout the whole history. If a post traumatic stress disorder can be devastating for a person, how vast can it be if experienced by 100 persons, 1 000 persons, by 3 500 000 persons? I think it can reach tragic and fatal dimensions. I believe that a tragic dimension was extended in the Albania of ’97 where violence, aggression, maltreatments and losses were the only things going on.

Aggression in Albania XI: December ’90…

2012-01-17T21:25:00.001+01:00

Part XI of the essay on Albania, written by an anonymous 17-year old, now takes us into the middle of the action of what happened in the country in 1990. The thesis of the essay is that ‘Everybody who is exposed to political violence, is psychologically traumatized’.

Students in the University of Tirana organized a massive disruption of lectures and in sign of discontent from the system and regime, entered a strike of hunger. All the population of Tirana was in solidarity with the requests of the students. In this regard, the miners of Valias (a coal mine in the vicinity of Tirana) entered a hunger strike within the mine. The rest of Albania was surprised with these new events. People started to escape the country and run for the borders with Greece and Yugoslavia. But almost all who attempted to escape were murdered by the secret services or by the border guards. It was a very dark moment for Albania. You could see dead bodies being pulled in the center of the town by military and police cars, to show to the inhabitants that this would happen to all who would try. People were terrified. For the first time, the real face of the dictatorship was being shown to the Albanians. Horror, fear and condemnation started to arise all of a sudden. All that pressure held within for almost 50 years was now materializing with massive opposition. But now, the rage was far greater than the fear and the horror. Now it was time to shout out loud against all injustice and prosecution. It was time to abolish the mask of democracy and show the true picture of an inhuman system that humiliated and destroyed the very core of the Albanian nation.

It is strange how the laws of physics can be applicable in explaining the human nature. The more you press the piston in an empty container, the more power it gains to outbreak from the pressure charged on it. The same goes for men. The more you press over men, and the more they bear, the more it is likely for them to explode into outrageous behavior. Indeed this happened in February ’91. Massive revolts and uprising were reported all over Albania. The Albanians were tired of living the illusion of being the only democratic country worldwide. They were tired of living apart as if they were quarantined from the rest of the world. This quarantine called Albania was populated by a nation who during all its existence were striving and fighting for one sole thing; a thing called FREEDOM. After year 1945 freedom was brought to Albania, but it was not freedom at all. It was liberation from the Nazi-fascist dictatorship, in order to bring the country into another sort of fascism, that fascism called communist dictatorship. It had nothing to do with communism itself. Communism was meant to be the most efficient system to be applied during all mankind history. It was a system where all were equal, where all were one, and one were all. But it was not this communism that was applied in Albania, or in USSR, or in any other eastern country, or even at all. It was a system that obliged men to behave like machines subdued in service of these new “Pharaohs” of modern times.

Aggression in Albania X: Art, culture, science…

2012-01-16T21:21:00.001+01:00

Another highly interesting, and very disturbing, chapter in a 17-year old’s essay on Albania in 1997.

In the name of socialist realism many things were truncated. Art was only realism that presented real individuals working the lands and protecting the country. Expressing individual feelings and emotions was prohibited, unless the person was expressing real life of real cooperative workers, real life of soldiers, real life of teachers teaching Marx and Engels’ philosophy on proletariat. The love of the Labor Party was to prevail in every text, in every novel and article of newspapers.
Everything was subdued to the review of the “critical eye” of the party and its selected ones. Erotic content was not only not allowed, but also prosecuted. Love was pure and idyllist. In the cinematography scenes of kisses, touching, and other intimacy were considered as obscene. No surrealism, no expressionism, no cubism, nothing of the modern streams of painting. It was obscene to have erotic poetry and poems as well. Poetry had to express love for the family, love for the country, party and so on. Intimacy was expressed in simple words of a superficial relationship. Music mustn’t contain strong rhythms and other elements of the western music. All these components were considered as decaying, decadent, and as imitation of hippie streams. Those who dared to oppose this oblivion of human nature and freedom of spirit, were imprisoned, stained in biography, were set aside or were fully ignored by the system. Despite the contribution they gave for the nation, it was immediately opposed. Everything, everybody had to be within the frames of socialist criticism.

Aggression in Albania IX: Economic development…

2012-01-15T21:15:00.001+01:00

In part IX of the anonymous 17-year old’s essay on Albania, we learn more historical background that helps to understand what happened in 1997.

It is true that after the liberation of Albania from the Nazi occupation, the development was somehow rapid. All people were involved in the refurbishment of Albania, and more than this. Till after the war, the infrastructure has been very rural. Cities looked like destroyed villages. The new infrastructure was a typical eastern architecture. Grey buildings with small apartments to live in. The private property was no longer permitted. All properties were fused into collective properties such as cooperatives and other structures. There was no more private investment or initiative. Previous tradesmen or businessmen were considered as enemies and micro burgesses. All their wealth and richness was confiscated and was transformed into collective property. We were being told that Albania was an oasis among the desert of capitalism. The welfare and well-being of the Albanian people was the highest. But the truth was different. People used to wait in long lines and long hours for milk and bread. Everything was sold with ratios. Milk, oil, wheat, coffee, sugar, everything was with ratios. The basic work and constructions in Albania were based on voluntary work. Massive voluntary actions were undertaken, and workers were obliged to participate “voluntarily”. Everything was productive including wilderness, but the economic level of an average family was still very low. The demagogy of a highly egalitarian and democratic state, was feeding the people more than the fruits of their own work and struggle.

Though everything was household produced: mines and minerals, power, oils and fuels, vegetables, fruits, corns and crops, industrial consumables etc., the Albanian families still lived in poverty. It was as if the Buddhist, Christian and eremites’ philosophy of neglecting and denying the luxuries of this world, would lead to a higher level of emotional, physical and interpersonal well-being. But this new philosophy was the philosophy of applied communism, which had nothing to do with the utopia of the communism itself. It had nothing to do with promised richness and equality of all social classes. In deed, social and political classes were deepened by the abysses of distinction, prejudices and discrimination. Prosecution of an individual was far beyond the individual himself. The whole family and relatives were prosecuted. They were sent into camps of forced labor, into deep areas of the state, and they were forced to lose contact with all their relatives. It did not matter if the prosecuted one was a professor, a doctor, a musician, a high-ranking officer; they were all politically, socially and morally degraded and put to forced labor.

Aggression in Albania VIII: Education…

2012-01-14T21:12:00.000+01:00

In part VIII of this essay on Albania in 1997, the anonymous 17-year old author continues to go further back in time to give us some background.

It is without doubts the part with most merits achieved by the regime. Within a short period, analphabetism was almost eradicated in all urban and rural areas of Albania. Universities, colleges, lyceums, elementary schools and gymnasiums were established within a brief time. Attendance to school was incredibly high. Many intellectuals were “produced” during this process of evolution. The system utilized the knowledge of west and east in order to fill the gaps that existed for many centuries. Many students from Albania were studying in the best universities of Moscow, Paris, London, Rome and in other countries. But anyway, there were plenty of gaps. Other taboos were not only deepening, but new ones were created. It was shameful to talk about sexuality, prohibited to talk about religion in an objective way, democracy was a misused word with a wrong meaning, war of classes was touching the elite of intellectualism, and secret services were acting everywhere. There were cases when the wife had revealed her husband for agitation and propaganda. One had to be careful with his family members because it was possible that the word might be spread all over. It was a dark time and nobody was safe unless always “on guard”.

Aggression in Albania VII: Religion…

2012-01-13T21:03:00.002+01:00

Part VII of the anonymous 17-year old’s essay on Albania in 1997 looks at more background.

No to religion! “Religion is the opium of the masses” said Karl Marx, one of the fathers of communism. And so be it. Religion had to be abolished down to the very roots. Most of churches and mosques were demolished. Only the historical monuments were preserved and were transformed into museums. Spiritual leaders were prosecuted and imprisoned, no matter to which religion they belonged. The need to believe in a supreme power that exceeded the powers of human nature was transformed in the need to believe and rely in the Party of Labor and its extreme fairness, impartiality and love for the “simple base”. What was confession? What was the mission of the clergy in accordance to the Marxist way of thinking? Confession was nothing but a way of expressing the ignorance of certain persons that fed people with false dogma. The mission of clergy was to disseminate division and separation among the people and to use their authority in order to profit and to leave them “in the shadow of ignorance”. No religious ritual or holiday was to be celebrated any more. No Christmas, no Bajram, no Easter, no nothing. The word ‘God’ was related to mythology and to harmful doctrines. The need for God was ignored and people were spiritually confused. To whom to direct when confusion, concern or distress was present? To the head of the council of neighborhood? To the secretary of the party? To the forum of youth? To whom else? Psychologically people were being emptied in order to leave space to a new era of national illumination by following the path of the fathers of communism. Russia, Yugoslavia, and all the eastern countries were rejecting the religious dogmas to free the people from obligations, ignorance and blindness. But was the clergy really the ‘Demon’ of Lermontov that was sneaking sliding through the windows of the “virgin” and telling beautiful lies to deceive her?

Aggression in Albania VI: Basis for aggression or imposed reaction?

2012-01-12T20:59:00.000+01:00

Part VI of the anonymous 17-year old’s essay on Albania in 1997 takes us further back in time to look at some causes for the aggressions.

Now the question is whether the Albanian aggression is deeply rooted within Albanians, or it was just an imposed reaction toward the situation, or better to say toward the past.

Is there any valid justification for this aggression expressed in the form of rage toward everything?

Can this aggression be the surface of a hidden collective trauma? What does it mean to experience a collective trauma?

I would try to explain it by examples of the life in communist Albania. It was an era where people did not produce or establish the system, but it was the system that created people. People were mechanisms to serve to the apparatus of state, to serve to the Party and to the Leadership. It went that far as to ignore the individual in an individualistic and intimate prism and consider the human being as part of classes. Who did not belong to the class of eligible, was faced with severe punishment or total avoidance. Extreme measures were being taken by the state apparatus. Individuals were being prosecuted for their beliefs, ideas and even for their past. Biographies were chased till reaching to the roots of a “decaying” genesis. If there was not a thing going wrong, facts were being fabricated to support the assumption that a certain person was to be prosecuted by the regime.

Aggression in Albania V: State apparatus…

2012-01-11T20:54:00.000+01:00

Part V of the touching and disquieting essay on aggression in Albania 1997, written by an anonymous 17-year old. The thesis of the essay is that ‘Everybody who is exposed to political violence, is psychologically traumatized’.

Nothing was functional. Not a single school, not a single organization, not a single institution. The administration of state was totally dysfunctional. People were attacking the military bases in order to reach to the armament. All of them were armed. The archives and the cadastres were all burnt down to the soil. The people were left without identity, without property and past. This was the Albanian state of February-May 1997. People were setting fire to everything, deeming that they were bringing liberation to the nation. Liberation to whom? Liberation from what, who? They chose the most frenetic and barbarian way of expressing their rage toward the system, toward the loss of their wealth. The world was now being convinced that Albania was inhabited by barbarians of a civilian era. After the clashes and uprising of January ’91 the recent clashes were not only the most massive, but the most aggressive. If a comparison was to be made between the two periods, the difference was very big. In ’91 it was the state apparatus against the people of Albania, but now, it was the people of Albania against the people and the state of Albania. Destroying everything was not a solution, but it seemed as a relief of that pressure that was hidden within them. Or was it that the need for destruction had no other justification but destruction itself and the expression of rage.

Aggression in Albania IV: Vlora…

2012-01-10T20:52:00.000+01:00

Part IV of the touching and disquieting essay on aggression in Albania 1997, written by an anonymous 17-year old. The thesis of the essay is that ‘Everybody who is exposed to political violence, is psychologically traumatized’.

It was a normal day among fighting of nobody and everybody. I was at my uncle’s with my mum. We were watching the news when all of a sudden black news appeared. A ship was sunk near the coasts of Italy, close to Brindisi. The ship was carrying Albanian emigrants that wanted to escape this war and secure their families somewhere else. 84 people were sunk with the ship, women, children, elders and men. It was horrible. 84 people try to escape hell, and they struggle in the middle of the Adriatic Sea in order to find the last resort: DEATH. This is caused willingly by the Italian coast guards in order to warn other possible emigrants not to surpass the Adriatic waters. It was horrible. But what could you expect from the others, when we were killing each-other??? I remember crying and fearing for my future and the future of my family. No one was safe.

This is still remembered as the Otranto Tragedy.

Aggression in Albania III: Outside…

2012-01-09T20:50:00.001+01:00

Part III of the touching and disquieting essay on aggression in Albania 1997, written by an anonymous 17-year old. The thesis of the essay is that ‘Everybody who is exposed to political violence, is psychologically traumatized’.

People were terrified even though they themselves were the ones to create all this hell. All you could see was people shooting from the balconies, from the streets, from corners of buildings, and a few ones that were caught in the middle of the street and used to run to escape any possible bullets.

I remember myself staring out of the window like a prisoner. Outside my courtyard there was a gipsy family. The man was an alcoholic and was always drunk. He took out a Kalashnikov and started to shoot toward our windows. I sat under the bed. He was that very drunk that he couldn’t understand he was shooting at the direction of the apartments. After a while, I went to see my neighbors and they told me that while having lunch, they heard a crash in the window of their kitchen. They had spotted that the window was shot by a bullet, and it entered into the couch in the living room. It was a miracle that they had no casualties, because they were eating in the table close to the window. The gipsy man continued to fire the gun. Afterwards, he entered into a bar with the Kalashnikov in his arms. All of a sudden, I could see him flying out of the door as in the movies of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. The Special Forces were inside the bar and when they saw him in, they threw him out. It was a funny thing to watch, but it could have been very tragic.

Aggression in Albania II: Home…

2012-01-08T20:46:00.001+01:00

Part II of the touching and disquieting essay on aggression in Albania 1997, written by an anonymous 17-year old. The thesis of the essay is that ‘Everybody who is exposed to political violence, is psychologically traumatized’.

I was playing with my cat. It was the only thing I could do in peace when I was not reading any books. The school was closed because no one could secure the life of students. All the windows were blinded with shutters. Even the sun rays were rare during those days. I could hear shootings from all sides. They were very close. Indeed, no matter where you were in Albania, the shootings were very close. I could even hear the sound of a metal jacket hitting the ground after it was being fired by a Kalashnikov. I couldn’t think how bored I was for being locked within my home, for more than a month. I could only think how safe it was to be locked within my home for the months to come.

Aggression in Albania I: Beginning of 1997

2012-01-07T20:46:00.000+01:00

Over the next couple of weeks, I will post what I think is an interesting, well-written, deeply touching and disquieting essay on aggression in Albania 1997 — written by a friend of mine, 17-year old back then, who wishes to remain anonymous. The thesis of the essay is that ‘Everybody who is exposed to political violence, is psychologically traumatized’.

Nobody knows how it began or how it ended. The only thing we were aware of was that a bloody war was at the doors of our very homes.

Everybody was whispering that the greed for money caused all of it. But I still believe that the roots were deeper than we thought at the time.

I was but a 17-year old girl, seeking for reasons and justifications, why my people all of a sudden had become a wild mob where everyone was target of everyone. I was ashamed to watch the news in foreign channels because I knew that my people were the first thing to appear on the screen. A war I couldn’t explain was going on. Nobody knew any good reasons for it, apart from the fact that almost all of us lost our money in the pyramid firms.

Chosen feelings are not actually feelings

2012-01-05T17:50:00.000+01:00

‘Feelings are the one thing you cannot choose. Otherwise you wouldn’t feel them. They can seem wrong or confusing or even frustrating or devastating, but they are there. If we could just choose them, we wouldn’t have many problems in life, at least not significant ones. What we can choose is how to approach what we do feel. Even this is often tough work, and the first, biggest and maybe most important and for some reason difficult step is to acknowledge a feeling.’

Bjørn Clasen
3 January 2012

Kinder wann? — Kids when?

2011-12-29T15:15:00.000+01:00

„Ich will nicht irgendwo angekommen sein, bevor mein Kind auf der Welt ist, ich will es mitnehmen.“
Patrick Bauer
in „Jetzt ein Baby?“ (Neon, Januar-Ausgabe 2012)

‘I do not want to have arrived somewhere before my child is born, I want to take it with me.’
Patrick Bauer
in ‘A Baby Now?’ (Neon, January edition 2012)

Reviews of Opera Comique

2011-12-08T17:36:00.000+01:00

A thorough, negative one — and a superficial, positive one.
From the author, Nagle Jackson, and from the audience (some 900 people in total watched the 9 performances), we got excellent feedback. And we loved performing it.

Let’s start with the good one, from Wort:

Bizet's battle for high art brought to life

The BGT gave a visually stunning performance of Nagle Jackson's Opera Comique at the Abbaye de Neumünster on Wednesday.

As part of a second run, following a successful staging in Mersch last month, the multi-cultural cast easily settled into their new surroundings.

And though they had every reason to be nervous, given that the work's playwright had made a special trip from Paris to watch the performance, it did not show.

The play struck off with a strong opener from Phoebe Smith, playing the buxom and occasionally principled usher. Her strong presence and perfect comic timing ensured the audience was primed for the many laughs which awaited in the script. And, as the play unfolded, we were not disappointed. Jackson's script, penned more than 20 years ago after reading a biography on Bizet, is packed with double-entendres, gags and farce, which still draw the laughs.

The beauty of the script also lies in its timelessness. The BGT performance and, in particular Joachim Cour's knitted-browed interpretation of Bizet, brought out the composer's frustrations with popular music over authentic and original music, echoing a common complaint by contemporary artists.

The point was not overly laboured by the BGT cast, however, and the raunchy shenanigans they portrayed onstage gave rise to enough laughs to ensure audiences did not feel they were being given a lesson in high art appreciation.

Lindsay Wegleitner's Viviane de la Corniche was a mesmerising sight, both for her stunning bustle dress and her chrysalis-like transformation from silent wall flower to verbose man-eater. Watching her declare her undying love and flitting from one man to another, she gave a believable performance of a rebellious teenage coming to terms with her own attractiveness.

On the subject of costumes, Viviane's dress was not the only creation to wow audiences. Costume designer Deborah Cocking pulled off a coup with her four lovingly recreated dresses, described in detail in the programme along with handy language and contextual references, crucial even for a native English speaker like me.

Finally, mention must be given for Karl Pierce's set. Despite Bizet's advice in the script to “Abandon all hope when people start talking about the architecture during the second act”, credit for the set is perfectly merited. The simple but beautifully decorated corridor leading to the Opera Comique boxes, painted with faux marble effect, accompanied by exquisite panel mouldings added another touch of authenticity to what was a visually impressive performance.

The other one, from 352 Luxmag:

Reviewer, Graham Cleverley, likes the pacing and the leads but feels the play itself was a poor choice of inspiration

‘Backstage’ is the word that comes to mind, but it doesn’t exactly describe the story of Nagle Jackson’s Opéra Comique, the BGT production at the Abbaye de Neumünster this week, in which the action takes place in a lounge behind the boxes at the eponymous Opéra Comique theatre in Paris, thus representing the much rarer category of ‘’front of house’ stories.

The location is therefore Paris, the time the rambunctious world première of Bizet’s Carmen, which needs no introduction, the ambiance the haut-bourgeois world of the early Third Republic. All of this is zeroed in on splendidly both by Karl Pierce’s perfect ‘any-day-now-and-we’ll-have-Art-Deco’ and Deborah Cocking’s meticulous costumes, about which a little later.

In this setting we meet two families, a wifeless Paul Vigneron and his son Hector, and an apparently settled married couple, the de la Corniches with their daughter Viviane, who have planned to meet accidentally in order to pair off the children. We also meet the composer himself, anxious that the audience might, with their lack of taste, actually like his work, with a friend, another composer, Ernest Guiraud (at least one assumes so, though the programme said ‘Giraud’). In a subplot a café singer, hardly ambiguously if bilingually, known as La Tartine, arrives seeking to seduce yet another composer, Charles Gounod, into writing an opera for her. And finally we have Odile, more or less the narrator and the dragon that guards the entrance to the boxes,

Quite obviously we are not just in Paris but in the world of the theatre boulevardier; adultery and other immoralities will be breaking out very soon. Unfortunately in so doing on this performance it seems that maybe the theatre boulevardier should be left to the French.

Comedy needs surprise to be funny (as, inversely, Hitchcock pointed out that suspense depended on knowing what is going to happen, and not wanting it to, not in not knowing). And here, once you’ve read the programme, what are you sure is going to happen? Adultery is going to happen. La Tartine is going to have her way with Gounod, which leaves no-one for Vigneron to be adulterous with except Mme and Mlle de la Corniche: that it transpires with both of them is hardly a surprise given the situation.

M. de la Corniche has no outlet for any such impulse, but no apparent impulse in the first place. Odile is out of the question, partly because smart servants don’t get involved. And of course, the intelligent servant will fatten her wallet from her superiors in the time-honoured manner of such servants throughout the history of the theatre. With the scene set and the characters introduced, the piece takes on a rather clockwork feel.

In terms of performance rather than content, Phoebe Smith as Odile adds another success to Thoroughly Modern Millie, Showstoppers and Calamity Jane, this time without singing but with an accent last heard of from Mrs Slocombe (and not dissimilar tastes in opera). She gave her jokes plenty of time to ferment, signalled them sufficiently without hamming, and varied pitch and pace. Essentially it was a faultless performance.

Moreover she looked like she had just walked out from behind the bar in the Manet painting – but wasn’t (genuine question) the bustle somewhat in advance of reality compared to the other women’s?

Also impressive was familiar BGT figure Ariane Spicq as La Tartine, in particular because she injected a genuinely French fillip into the characterisation without losing intelligibility. Joachim Cour as Bizet, Patrick Schomaker as Guiraud, and Pierre-Yves Lanneau-Saint-Leger as Gounod (again familiar from recent BGT productions) also presented us with a little more esprit gaulois in their satirical depictions of the composers, especially Bizet’s disdain for the audience, Gounod’s readiness for sin despite devoting himself at the time to church music.. Unfortunately Pierre-Yves suffered somewhat from becoming unintelligible when excited, and satirising Gounod’s conscience demanded a rather more rarefied audience than was at hand.

Which leaves the families, among whom Bjarn Clasen was his usual reliable self as M. Vigneron. Unusually, Stephen Anderson was not as reliable as usual as M. de la Corniche: for once his Americanism was a handicap, but he did also have a very weak part. 1875 was nearly the height of the duelling tradition in France, especially among the aspirants to minor nobility. Confronted with the adultery of his wife with Vigneron, an 1870s de la Corniche (or de la Anything) would have said ‘you will hear from my seconds…' not ‘you will hear from my attorneys…’ In fact it might have been funnier too, adding a Don Quixote touch to the way de la Corniche was played.

June Lowery playing Mme de la Corniche had a considerable part well speckled with wordplay and jokes, but while you could hear everyone of them, on the whole they passed by without leaving much of a ripple, lacking pointing and being produced with little variation in dynamics, pace or pitch – unusually for her.

Of the two children, Robin Edds as Hector has least to do, except appear stupid and obsessed with women’s’ clothes – or, rather, imaginarily removing them, so that he falls into a awkward staring pose every time a woman appears in view. He managed the awkward poses well, but the joke wears thin. Lindsay Wegleitner as Viviane has two running jokes, one her readiness to fall into bed, or any handy equivalent, with anyone old enough and the other an inability to stop laughing, paralleling her mother’s inability to stop crying for something like half an act, for no reason readily apparent to the audience. Mind you she laughs well.

Generally speaking all the running jokes that substitute for characterisation keep running after they have had their lap of honour, which is the fault of the play. Other jokes in the script fail to register with the audience, which is the fault of the players, and eventually of the director. Otherwise though the direction is successful, in that movement is logical, properly paced, and serves well to keep the focus shifting with the changes from one subplot to another.

But the main fault I suspect lies in choosing the play in the first place.

But, as I said, we had fun. And so had (the vast majority of) the audiences.

Half A Genius

2011-12-02T00:22:00.000+01:00

I’m half a genius
Or a half genius
Not sure
Maybe I’m no genius
At all
‘Cause it’s one of these
Things
That on Earth is
Either-or
If you’re not unquestionably
A genius
You’re not a genius
At all
Except of course those
About whom people discuss
Whether they are genius
Or just plain mad
But I’m not mad
So maybe I’m just plain

© Bjørn Clasen

Pix!!

2011-11-08T08:09:00.000+01:00

This summer, one of my Slovenian friends, Maruška, who is such brilliant photographer that she should make a living of it, took some portrait photographs for my website.

Here is part of the result, as well as her description.

Meine Kandidatur für die Wahl zum FC-Verwaltungsrat

2011-10-24T20:38:00.006+02:00

Liebe FC-Mitglieder

Die Mitgliederversammlung steht kurz bevor, und darunter auch die Wahl zum Verwaltungsrat. Ich habe beschlossen, für diesen zu kandidieren und brauche daher bis Sonntag 50 Unterschriften, die meine Kandidatur unterstützen.

Wer mich dabei helfen will, kann mich kontaktieren (fc [at] clasencoach.eu). Ich werde Ihnen dann einen Bogen zuschicken, wo Sie (und natürlich gerne auch andere Mitglieder in Ihrem Umfeld) sich mit Name, Mitgliedsnummer und Unterschrift eintragen können. Ausgefüllt können Sie den Bogen dann scannen und per E-Mail an mich zurückschicken (Original unbedingt aufbewahren; den brauche ich später) oder eventuell am 30. persönlich an mir abgeben.

Unterschreiben kann jede(r), die/der bei der Mitgliederversammlung Stimmrecht hat (auch wenn Sie nicht kommen bzw. mich nicht wählen), d.h. am 13. November 2011 mindestens 18 Jahre alt ist. Dabei ist es wichtig, dass Sie nicht nur Ihren Namen, sondern auch Ihre FC-Mitgliedsnummer angeben!

Ein Bisschen über mich:
Ich bin ein lebendiger Beweis für „einmal FC, immer FC!“. Die Geschichte ist zu lang um hier zu erklären, aber sagen wir mal, dass obwohl ich Däne bin und in Luxemburg aufgewachsen bin, steht die Bundesliga für mich über die Champions League, der FC, selbst in den Jahren in Liga Zwei, über jeden anderen Verein, national wie international. Dass 50.000 Zuschauer aufstehen und das FC-Lied 10 Minuten vor Schluss am letzten Spieltag in der letzten Abstiegssaison singen sagt für mich eigentlich alles. Ich war dabei. Und habe ironischerweise an diesem traurigen Tag mein Herz endgültig an den FC verloren. Seitdem fahre ich so oft, es meine Zeit und mein Geld es überhaupt erlauben, ins RheinEnergieStadion, zu Auswärtsspielen oder einfach nur nach Kölle. Könnte ich nach Kölle ziehen, würde ich es tun.

Ein Lebenslauf schicke ich gerne auf Anfrage. Online gibt es einen hier. Dazu können Sie auch gerne meine Firmenseite besuchen.

Einige Punkte wozu ich stehe:

— Der FC ist laut mehreren Untersuchungen einer der allerbesten Vereine Deutschlands im Bereich Fan-Service und Branding. Diese Position müssen wir auch in Zukunft halten und erweitern. Ich bin für eine Fortsetzung und einen Ausbau des Dialogs zwischen dem Verein, seine Mitglieder und seine Fans. Denn unsere Herzen schlagen alle für den FC.

— Profi-Fußball ist auch Geschäft. Darum heisst es Profi-Fußball. Der FC muss sich realistische sportliche und daher auch wirtschaftliche Ziele setzen. Diese müssten auch ambitiös sein, wobei man beachten soll, dass man laufen können muss, bevor man versucht zu sprinten. Stabilität ist das Schlüsselwort; so kommt der FC wieder voran, Schritt für Schritt. Dabei muss der FC nie einen Scheich-Spielzeug werden. Lieber eine Dauermitgliedschaft in der Bundesliga, mit kleinem Geld und mäßigen Ergebnissen (und dann in 2020 Meister werden) als eine durch „einfaches“ Geld gekaufte Spitzenposition, oder dieses ewige Zig-Zag zwischen den Ligen weil man zu früh zu hoch strebt.
— Auch hier gilt die Transparenz: Der Verein muss um seine Ziele offen sein, und darüber ehrlich bleiben wenn und warum etwas weniger gut läuft.
— Konkret könnte man überlegen, eine lebenslange FC-Mitgliedschaft anzubieten, zum Preis von z.B. 20 Jahre Mitgliedschaft. Die Rentabilität muss natürlich erst überprüft werden.

Übrigens habe ich die FC-Hymne in mehreren Sprachen übersetzt. Demnächst im Geißbock-Echo zu lesen!

Für Fragen bin ich natürlich offen. Schreiben Sie mir einfach.
Ich bedanke mich bei Ihnen sehr herzlich für jede Unterstützung und für Ihr Vertrauen!
Mit FCreundlichen Grüßen
Bjørn Clasen

Hilarious ad

2011-10-24T19:02:00.000+02:00

Humour involving stereotyping mostly works — probably because it confirms people’s little prejudices, so they can relate to it. Apparently, Norwegians have slightly different stereotypes of their close and less close neighbours, as this ad shows.

Upper row from left to right: Norway, Sweden, Denmark (what!?! WE are the ones who drink??!!?), Finland, Czech Republic.

Middle row: Poland (love this one!!), Estonia, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria.

Lower row: Hungary, France, Italy, Spain, Slovakia.

Cute pandas vs ugly slugs

2011-09-12T11:12:00.000+02:00

‘[B]ecause pandas are so “cute” governments are spending a lot of money per individual to keep them going as opposed to spending that money on far less charismatic creatures, like sea slugs, Nembortha megalocera, for example, whose tentacles contain highly evolved nerve endings and synapses where chemical transmitters and signal transduction are comparable at many levels to the workings of the human brain, with its hundred billion nerve cells. Is being “cute” the criterion for conservation resource allocations? This is just one type of problem in reconciling the human condition with the condition of the planet’s biodiversity.’
Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison
in ‘God’s Own Country: The New Zealand Factor’

Emil Aarestrup

2011-08-30T11:57:00.002+02:00

Aarestrups digte er noget af det smukkeste, der nogensinde er skabt på dansk.
Her et — yderst beskedent — udvalg. Begyndende med mit yndlingsdigt.

“Til En Veninde”

Der er en Trolddom paa din Læbe,
Der er en Afgrund i dit Blik,
Der er i Lyden af din Stemme
En Drøms ætheriske Musik.

Der er en Klarhed paa din Pande,
Der er et Mørke i dit Haar,
Der er en Strøm af Blomsteraande
Omkring dig, hvor du staaer og gaaer.

Der er en Skat af evig Viisdom
I Smilehullet paa din Kind,
Der er en Brønd, en Sundhedskilde
For alle Hjerter, i dit Sind.

Der er en Verden i dit Indre,
En sværmerisk, chaotisk Vaar —
Som jeg umulig kan forglemme,
Som jeg tilbeder og forstaaer.

“Omvendelse”

Der var en Tid, jeg troede ei paa Gud,
Og havde intet Haab om Evighed;
Tilintetgjørelsens uhyre Ro
Var mine mørke Tankers Ideal.
Men siden jeg har følt en Lidenskab
Som den, jeg nu besjæles af:
Har jeg begyndt at troe, der er en Gud,
Og har det Haab, der er en Evighed.

fjerde og sidste strofe af “Fortvivlelse”

Jeg vælter mig i mine Flammer
Og har det — saavidt — ganske godt:
Jeg har endnu min gamle Latter,
Min Djævlefrækhed, og min Spot.

Interessante bydemåder

2011-08-29T13:47:00.000+02:00

Dansk har masser af sjovtlydende eller i deres betydning groteske bydemåder at …øh …byde på. Her et beskedent udvalg.

a!
begejstr!
boltr!
hindr!
kims!
kludr!
krydr!
lid!
opfordr!
polstr!
pøns!
studs!
sult!
tørst!
undr!
vejr!
voks!

Fra dengang, det hed “edb”

2011-08-26T11:36:00.001+02:00

Sjov læsning fra 1988 om almindelig omgang med Piccolinen, såfremt Partneren er tændt.

(Klik på et billede for at se det større.)

FC Cologne, We Stand By You

2011-08-25T15:37:00.000+02:00

The FC Cologne anthem in English — ©2011 Bjørn Clasen
Translated from the ‘kölsch’ version — Melody: ‘The Bonnie Banks O’ Loch Lomond’

Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh and London Town
Everywhere, you’ll find FC supporters
In Sydney, New York, Brighton, Cardiff and in Cork
Everywhere, there are FC supporters

Yesterday and today, whether joy or sometimes pain
It’s the feeling that makes FC Kölle
Forward or back, each new game brings us new luck
That’s the feeling that makes FC Kölle

We swear to you on our honour and pride
FC Cologne, we stand by you
And we’ll go with you on each rollercoaster ride
We will always support FC Kölle

The old and the young, the poor and the rich
Together we are strong, FC Kölle
Through thick and through thin, through the fire, everywhere
Together we stand, FC Kölle

We swear to you on our honour and pride
FC Cologne, we stand by you
And we’ll go with you on each rollercoaster ride
We will always support FC Kölle

We swear to you on our honour and pride
FC Cologne, we stand by you
And we’ll go with you on each rollercoaster ride
We will always support FC Kölle

Vi Er Med Dig, FC Kölle

2011-08-24T15:34:00.002+02:00

1. FC Kölns fanhymne på dansk — ©2011 Bjørn Clasen
Oversat fra den “kölsche” udgave — Melodi: ‘The Bonnie Banks O’ Loch Lomond’

Odense, København, Aalborg, Århus, Aabenraa
Overalt er der fans af FC Kölle
I Tórshavn og Nuuk, på Bornholm og i Hobro
Overalt er der fans af FC Kölle

I går og i dag, om det går frem eller tilbag’
Er det følelsen af FC Kölle
Om op eller ned, lykkebringer er vor ged
Det er følelsen af FC Kölle

Stolthed og ære, det sværger vi på
Vi er med dig, FC Kölle
Og vi følger dig gennem ild hvis det ska’ vær’
Vi vil altid vær’ dig tro, FC Kölle

Gammel som ung, og fattig som rig
Sammen er vi stærkest, FC Kölle
Hvor end det går hen, gennem tykt og gennem tyndt
Er det sammen vi er bedst, FC Kölle

Stolthed og ære, det sværger vi på
Vi er med dig, FC Kölle
Og vi følger dig gennem ild hvis det ska’ vær’
Vi vil altid vær’ dig tro, FC Kölle

Stolthed og ære, det sværger vi på
Vi er med dig, FC Kölle
Og vi følger dig gennem ild hvis det ska’ vær’
Vi vil altid vær’ dig tro, FC Kölle

Dans Toute Éternité, FC Kölle

2011-08-23T15:26:00.003+02:00

L’hymne de FC Cologne en français — ©2011 Bjørn Clasen
Traduit de la version «kölsch» — Mélodie: ‘The Bonnie Banks O’ Loch Lomond’

Saint-Étienne, Nice et Cannes, à Paris, Caen et Lyon
Supporteurs du FC, y en a partout
Genève et Bruxelles, et à l’île de Réunion
On en trouve qui supportent FC Kölle

La joie et les larmes, au passé comme au futur
L’émotion est en toi, FC Kölle
Des hauts et des bas, chaque défi est une chance
C’est bien ça, l’émotion FC Kölle

Nous te jurons sur l’honneur d’être fidèle
De te soutenir, FC Kölle
Et nous y tenons, même de traverser le feu
Dans toute éternité, FC Kölle

Jeunes ou âgés, les pauvres comme les riches
Unis, nous sommes forts, FC Kölle
Obstacles et défis, peu importe où tu nous mènes
Nous tenons tous ensemble, FC Kölle

Nous te jurons sur l'honneur d'être fidèle
De te soutenir, FC Kölle
Et nous y tenons, même de traverser le feu
Dans toute éternité, FC Kölle

Nous te jurons sur l'honneur d'être fidèle
De te soutenir, FC Kölle
Et nous y tenons, même de traverser le feu
Dans toute éternité, FC Kölle

Sprogblomster fra korrekturlæsning

2011-08-22T14:18:00.028+02:00

Ku’ jeg lige få dén en gang til?
Fagsprog kan være totalt uforståeligt for os almindelige jordiske. Fx nævner en særberetning fra 1998, at »EFSR og SPD for M1 blev endelig vedtaget i sommeren 1994 og EFSR og SPD for M2 i december 1994. Efterfølgende måtte man konkretisere EFSR gennem vedtagelsen af OP, globaltilskud og bestemte projekter.« Konkretiseres? Ja, det er lige ordet!

På den anden side kan forfatteren også undervurdere læserens intellekt. Hvor mange mon hopper på følgende fodnote: (⁴) Se fodnote 4.«? De, der gør, kommer i hvert fald aldrig videre med teksten i den pågældende beslutning.

Ordforbistring
Det sker meget tit, at det kompakte sprog i retsakter åbner mulighed for komiske misforståelser. I en retsakt om veterinærlægemidler omtales »æglæggende fugle, malkedyr eller honningbier«; jeg har ellers lært, at både køer og geder føder levende unger, men der er muligvis hér tale om genetisk ændrede arter.

Den seksuelle frigørelse må siges at være slået igennem, når en institution »i sin personalepolitik [går] ind for lige muligheder for kvinder og mænd i alle stillinger.«

Til gengæld tyder følgende på diskrimination af det ellers såkaldt stærke køn: »Tekniske specifikationer og detaljerede tegninger for Hybrid III, der svarer til de vigtigste mål på en amerikansk mandsperson, som repræsenterer 50 %-fraktilen, samt specifikationerne for dens justering med henblik på denne prøve, beror hos De Forenede Nationers generalsekretær og kan på anmodning besigtiges på sekretariatet for Den Økonomiske Kommission for Europa, Palais des Nations, Genève, Schweiz.«

I ekstreme tilfælde lader det endda til, at retsakter paradoksalt nok opfordrer til ulovligheder. En retsakt bærer således titlen »Direktiv om anvendelse af udlejningskøretøjer uden fører til godstransport ad landevej«. Ikke overraskende, at spøgelsesbilister er så frygtet.

Etikken kan synes noget mangelfuld i følgende titel: »Sammenlignende vurdering af de i dag anvendte socialpolitiske løsninger og de forskellige aktørers rolle med hensyn til udviklingen i socialudstødelsesformer og -processer i Europa«.

Endnu mere forargeligt lyder det, når der indkaldes forslag til »Initiativet »Vold i skolen««! Mon det er princippet om omvendt psykologi, der her søges taget i brug?

Typografi
Ind imellem er der problemer med de græske bogstaver. Således er den græsksprogede af de 11 overskrifter på en oversigt over udvælgelsesprøver angivet som »ÄÉÁÃÙÍÓÌÏÉ«. Jeg troede ellers, de også havde konsonanter på græsk.

Undersættelser
at bekæfte = at tilsmudse højlydt
at fremslægge = at slække på noget på forhånd. Fx at fremslægge yderligere beviser = at slække på bevisbyrden på forhånd
fuldtud = fænomenet, når alkoholikeres næser bliver rødsprængte
gæld-ende = når hele ens gæld er betalt
hoveproduktion = skomageri, fx til heste
myndiged = ged fra Myndien (græsk region)
at råspørge = at spørge meget kontant. Bruges fx i forbindelse med afhøring af kriminelle
tegnebøge = bøgetræ-art, specielt velegnet til fremstilling af blyanter
tråffes = konjunktiv præsens af træffes (gammel form)
underskuttet = når man endnu ikke har skuttet sig nok til at have fået varmen

Danish Dynamite

2011-08-21T16:57:00.000+02:00

EM-triumfen i 1992 er naturligvis det største, dansk fodbold har præsteret. Men jeg har samlet nogle andre højdepunkter fra nyere tid.

(I øvrigt har Dansk Boldspil-Union en glimrende søgebase på alle landskampe)

»En fullllldstænnndig vanvittig vinkel å' skyde fra, den dér!«

Fra dengang Laudrup kunne styre russerne (»han er altså ikk' mere end 20 år«), Lerby havde lov til at spille uden benskinner, og fodboldkommentatorer ― som her Svend Gehrs ― lød alvorlige. Det meste af tiden.

VM-kvalifikation i København, 5/6-85: Danmark-Sovjet 4:2 ― 1. halvleg

2. halvleg

Kortere sammendrag af begge halvlege, for de travle

»¡Estamos en México!«

VM-kvalifikation i Oslo, 16/10-85: Norge-Danmark 1:5 ― sammendrag

Antihelt Arnesen

Fra dengang enkelte hold stadig spillede fodbold i stedet for på resultattaktik (forklaring i det andet klips begyndelse), liberoer ikke var mere specialister end at de turde gå med frem, og enkelte spillere stadig viste sportsånd. Selv når det var for sent.

VM i Querétaro, 13/6-86: Danmark-Vesttyskland 2:0 ― sammendrag med langsomme gengivelser

Sammendrag med kommentarer før og efter

Uden kommentarer

OL-/ungdomslandsholdet kan også. Desværre rakte det ikke til kvalifikation pga. en slem skrivebordsfejl i Dansk Boldspil-Union.

OL-kvalifikation i Aalborg, 10/6-87: Danmark-Rumænien 8:0 ― Danmarks mål uden kommentarer

Syv mål af syv forskellige spillere

Nogle år senere blev Danmark europamester. Det tog noget længere tid, før grækerne præsterede det samme...

VM-kvalifikation i København, 17/5-89: Danmark-Grækenland 7:1 ― Danmarks mål

»Dinamarca estaba jugando su mejor partido internacional desde que ganar el campeonato europeo seis años antes...«

Piter Muler, Braian Laudrup, Ebe Sán y Tómas Élbe...

VM i Saint-Denis, 28/6-98: Nigeria-Danmark 1:4 ― Danmarks mål med kommentar på spansk

»Og der' mål. Der' kasse. Simpelthen.«

En mindre betydende, men ikke mindre flot og i øvrigt historisk sejr, som jeg faktisk havde glemt, over verdens bedst betalte spillere ― fra en tid med nærmest intetsigende kommentarer.

Træningskamp i København, 17/8-5: Danmark-England 4:1 ― Danmarks mål

»Ja'm det jo dejligt!«
»Ja, det tæller altsammen, jo!«

Endnu et bevis på, at held kommer, når man søger det. Selv fulgte jeg kampen på en portugisisk kafe i portugiserkvarteret, jeg bor i. Fadostemning. Fantastisk.

VM-kvalifikation i Lisboa, 10/9-8: Portugal-Danmark 2:3 ― de sidste 10 minutter uden klip

Indsatsen, resultatet og sejren i Portugal mindede mig om en kamp mod Belgien, som jeg derfor vil runde af med, selvom den kronologisk ligger allerførst...

EM i Strasbourg, 19/6-84: Danmark-Belgien 3:2 ― målene, med engelsk kommentar

We are red, we are white
We're still Danish Dynamite!

From the Mexico Trip archive — Previously Unreleased

2011-08-20T13:20:00.037+02:00

I could tell about all I the things I haven’t found time to blog.

About Andres, the Plazuela Bastida market clothes seller. Who liked my worn-out green jeans and asked me for a price. Of course I gave them to him, along with a bunch of T-shirts, a small towel and a pair of shoes, which I all had thought of leaving in the hotel anyway. In return, I got his address and a photo of him and his beautiful 3-year old daughter. Father of five, forty years old. Andres of Oaxaca.

About the book fair, local style. A poster with a reading grasshopper. A simple entrance portal. Stalls with stacks and shelves of books. Cubes for storage and for meeting rooms and relaxation, in straightforward red, yellow, blue and green. Paul Auster and Siri Somethingnordicsounding doing readings at the theatre, for the wannabeseens. Frankfurt go home. Why make it elaborate when you can make it simple. 28th Oaxaca Book Fair.

About the coffee place, called Xiguila, in the lovely neighbourhood Jalatlaco. Not just the organic coffee shop I thought it was but the best eatery I experienced in Oaxaca. Last meal there, best place. Xiguila in Jalatlaco.

About Dionisio, the artist, just next door to the coffee place. Sitting around his sand painting of skulls, a candle in each corner, and surrounded by skulls painted on the wall. Drinking mezcal and beer and eating typical Day Of The Dead food and drinking more mezcal and more beer. And admiring his art, the diversity of his artistic talent. Dionisio Martínez, artist, Jalatlaco.

About Etla. The parades of people in amazingly elaborate costumes, political or otherwise satirical statements, those clad in hundreds of mirrors, dancing on the plaza in front of San Agustín Etla’s church, then parading and dancing in people's gardens. All night. Dancing. Celebrating death. Etla, outside Oaxaca.

About folk metal. A genre mixing heavy metal with, well, folk. Got to know it from my roommate at the Reality Tour. Found out i already knew a group — Closterkeller singing in Polish ― playing that sort of thing, just didn’t know it was called like that. Dalriada, Eluveitie, Arkona. Folk metal.

About icebreaking. ‘Write up your best or worst or most hilarious travel experience in no more than 20 words, and then the others have to guess who wrote it’. And this, before anyone knew each other at the travel writers’ boot camp. My contribution, only one I could fit into twenty words:

18 bears catching salmon, grabbing into the water, waiting for them to jump, or stealing other bears’ catch. Katmai, Alaska.

Most thought the drinking stories or the Asia ones were me. It did break the ice.

About Monte Albán. A pre-Hispanic city. Its pyramids, its sacred places, its enormous squares, its ball games, its museum and souvenir shop. Finally a decent selection of postcards, and Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as paper dolls. Best of all, an answer to the question why the steps on the pyramids are so high when the inhabitants were so small ― explanation: Because the summit of the pyramids as a religious place had to demand an effort to reach. Whereas we, in our civilisation, try to think practical. I buy that. Monte Albán, and the lesser Mitla, archeological sites outside Oaxaca.

About weaving. Teotitlán del Valle, weavers’ village. A visit to José Buenaventura, weaver using natural dyes for all of his carpets and other works, except for purple and turquoise, which you cannot get from plants or insects like the other colours. Weavers’ village, Teotitlán outside Oaxaca.

New word: casanueces = nutcracker

Quote: ‘Del rayo te escaparás, pero de la raya no.’
(Recopilación de Elodia Miranda Santiago)

©2008/2011 Bjørn Clasen

Eins meiner Lieblingslogos

2011-08-19T12:36:00.000+02:00

Das Logo der Kölner Zoo ist einfach genial. Beim ersten Blick einfach ein Elefant. Dann entdeckt man zwei weitere Tiere, die die Silhouette des Elefanten ausmachen — zusammen mit dem Wahrzeichen der Stadt Köln schlechthin, er Kölner Dom.

So einfach geht das. Genial. Einfach genial.

Gensyn med “Er DU Tintinolog?”

2011-08-18T16:30:00.001+02:00

Nettet er ny nyttigt. Jeg har nu opdateret en milepæl fra min fortid — som er god reklame for, hvad jeg kunne (og stadig kan)…

Bogen kan i øvrigt stadig fås hos fx Faraos Cigarer i København. Og jeg signerer den gerne ved lejlighed.

What shall… we use… to fill… the empty… spaces…

2011-08-17T20:43:00.005+02:00

That’s what Pink Floyd sang three decades ago on legendary ‘The Wall’.

Three years ago, I attended a statistics trade fair in Lisbon. One stand remained like this:

…kinda ironic when you see the name above. Looks like they really do need to populate Minnesota. Or maybe the representatives were so amazed by the Portuguese weather as opposed to cold Minnesota that they simply found better things to do, out in town.

Another stand, just as unfull, maybe remained like that for almost the opposite reason. Luxembourg is rich, at least in official GNP terms. So why bother manning a stand to study income? I mean, they know how to generate one. Or they didn’t particularly need to increase it, what with being rich and all.

Enough fair. Fair enough.

Huskedigt II

2011-08-08T16:18:00.001+02:00

se Huskedigt I

Uden Titel
af Bjørn Clasen

Delaware
Nina, min ven i Laos’, to kroer
Penge på gulvet. Kaffe
Bacardi 2 Go
Slem hangover igen
Kopieres, smøres ud

Pia bryder isen
En minutafgørelse i reklamationsparlamentet
Need war, Peter?
Amøbe!
Wild cow!

Alarm! Strand — undergrund!
Åbn fløjteparaden!
Alpha 101
90125
Forsigtig hedning roser fjernsynet
Danmark, gå og gø

Meine FC-Wunschelf

2011-08-08T16:16:00.000+02:00

‘Daaad, look! A man with short hair!’

2011-07-15T17:47:00.003+02:00

‘Opera Comique’ — a comedy in English

2011-06-14T12:27:00.000+02:00

BGT English Language Theatre

presents

OPERA COMIQUE

a comedy in English

by Nagle Jackson

Kulturhaus Mersch

Wednesday 5th October to Saturday 8th October at 20.00

Tickets €15.00 (€8.00 reduction)

Following the great success of “JANE EYRE” in 2010, the BGT is pleased to return to Mersch with “OPERA COMIQUE”, a hilarious comedy set at the premiere of Bizet’s “Carmen” in 1875.

A group of wealthy Parisians is visiting the Opera… but not for the show. Monsieur and Madame Corniche want their daughter, Viviane, to marry Hector Vigneron. But Viviane falls in love with Hector’s father …who is having an affair with her mother. Meanwhile “La Tartine” is trying to seduce the great composer Gounod. And amid all this, Bizet is in despair at the poor reception of his new work. “Carmen” may be a tale of passion, sex and betrayal …but it’s nothing compared to what is happening in the audience!

Actors: Phoebe Smith, Bjørn Clasen, Steven Anderson, June Lowery, Lindsay Wegleitner, Joachim Cour, Pierre-Yves Lanneau Saint- Leger, Ariane Spicq, Robin Edds and Patrick Schomaker

Design: Karl Pierce
Producer: June Lowery
Director: Tony Kingston

Advanzia MasterCard: Verwirrung Total

2011-05-28T12:04:00.000+02:00

Sehr geehrter Kundendienst

Ich habe gerade telefonisch einen SecureCode angefragt und per E-Mail dann auch sofort erhalten. Ich wollte sie dann aktivieren, damit sie nicht abläuft:

auf der Seite http://www.advanzia.com/index.php?id=49 klicke ich auf "hier registrieren"

ich komme dann zur Seite https://enrollment.securecode.com/vpas/advanzia/enroll/index.jsp?locale=de_DE&bankid=121, wo ich dann auf "Jetzt anmelden" klicke

um auf NOCH eine Seite zu landen, nämlich https://enrollment.securecode.com/vpas/advanzia/enroll/reg.jsp?locale=de_DE&bankid=121, wo ich dann zum dritten Mal einen Registrierungs-/Anmeldungsknopf klicken muss, diesmal mit dem Namen "Registrieren"

wenn ich das tue, kommt allerdings dieselbe Seite, https://enrollment.securecode.com/vpas/advanzia/enroll/reg.jsp?locale=de_DE&bankid=121, wieder. Also eine Ewigkeitslücke.

Noch ‘was: In Ihrem E-Mail ist service@gebuhrenfrei.com als Ihre Adresse angegeben. Wenn man an diese schreibt, heisst es im Adressenfeld allerdings “Bitte nicht antworten”.

Es ist sehr verwirrend, und ich habe jetzt eine Stunde gebraucht, ohne meinen Internetkauf überhaupt ausführen zu können. Da frage ich mich zweierlei:

1) Wozu habe ich überhaupt eine Kreditkarte, wenn es so umständlich/unverständlich ist, sie zu benutzen

2) Wie kann ich Ihnen als Kommunikationsexperte helfen, Ihren Kundendienst zu verbessern, damit Ihre Kunden auch bleiben, und Ihnen weiterempfehlen?

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Bjørn Clasen
Career, Creativity & Communication Coach
Clasen Coaching & Consulting

Brief an Nena

2011-05-25T17:07:00.005+02:00

Hallo Nena

Aus Liebe zu deiner Musik, und da wir wissen, wie du Kinder liebst, möchten wir dieses Tolle Foto mit dir teilen.

Seit nunmehr fünf Jahren ist es für uns Tradition mindestens einmal im Jahr zu ein Nena-Konzert zu fahren, am liebsten Open Air. Dabei wohnen wir in unterschiedlichen Ecken außerhalb Deutschlands und machen uns immer die Mühe, eine Stadt zu finden, wozu wir alle recht einfach reisen können ...und wo du auch auftretest. “Wir” sind übrigens Steen aus Jütland in Dänemark, sein Sohn Kristoffer aus Kopenhagen und Bruder bzw. Onkel Bjørn, der in Luxemburg wohnt.

Da Steen schon als Teenie großer Nena-Fan war ist auch Bjørn mit dieser Musik aufgewachsen, und die Begeisterung ist jetzt in der nächsten Generation weitergeführt, indem Kristoffer als heutiger Teenie lieber Nena hört (obwohl er nur wenig Deutsch spricht) als all dem, was seine Gleichaltrigen sonst hören.

Wenn immer es möglich ist sind auch Steens Frau Merian und deren vier kleinen Töchter Mynte (4 Jahre), Merle & Nælde (beide 2) und Cirkel (6 Monate) bei den Konzerten dabei. Da das in diesem Jahr in Bad Segeberg nicht der Fall war, hat Papi aber Nena-Mützen und Nena-T-shirts für alle besorgt. Auf dem Foto sind es von links nach rechts Merle, Mynte, Cirkel und Nælde. Vielleicht schaffen wir es ja im Sommer noch einmal zu ein Konzert zu fahren, alle gemeinsam, damit der Nachwuchs auch Live ihre Begeisterung zeigen kann.

Die allerliebsten Grüße
Familie Clasen

Ståles nye klub — lidt om 1. FC Kölns spillere

2011-05-24T18:42:00.000+02:00

Frits Adler fra sporten.dk har skrevet en artikel om 1. FC Köln — en udmærket minianalyse af nogle af holdets førstevalg blandt spillerne. Bortset fra, at de polske landsholdsspillere Adam Matuschyk og Sławomir Peszko end ikke er nævnt, var der et par smuttere, som jeg fik Adler til at rette.

Adler skrev oprindelig, at klubben skal forstærke sig på målmandspladsen. Men faktisk er Kölns Michael Rensing ifølge kicker forårets bedste målmand i Bundesligaen, og den bedste spiller i det hele taget, der ikke spiller for mestrene fra Dortmund. Desuden ejer 1. FC Köln stortalentet Michael Kessler. I denne sæson var han udlejet til FC St. Pauli og vil sikkert igen blive lejet ud til en anden klub, idet han fortjener spilletid.

Af profiler kan også nævnes den portugisiske tidligere stjerne Petit; en af Bundesligaens allerbedste forsvarsspillere, brasilianeren Geromel; og ikke mindst Milivoje Novakovič, som blev nummer tre på ligaens topscorerliste i år. Måske ikke verdensstjerner, men helt klart profiler. Adler skrev dog, at der ikke er mange profiler ud over Podolski, hvorfor jeg ikke ville klandre ham for dèn.

Endvidere hed det, at »Flere af de største tyske landsholdsspillere — herunder også flere danske — har spillet for Gedebukkene, der er klubbens kælenavn.« Sætningen var vist ikke helt korrekt (tyske landsholdsspillere, herunder danske…) — men derudover har store navne som Klaus Fischer og Rainer Bonhof og ikke-tyskere som fx Tony Woodcock og Toni Polster, for nu at nævne nogle ganske få, også spillet for Gedebukkene. Adler valgte helt at tage dette ud i anden udgave af sin artikel.

Sidst men ikke mindst glemte jeg at gøre ham opmærksom på, at Brečko bestemt ikke erpublikumsyndling. Personligt har jeg altid syntes rigtig godt om Brečko — jeg har endda hans træningstrøje fra for et par år siden — men han er den spiller, der oftest kritiseres, når jeg taler med andre 1. FC Köln-fans. Så generelt er han ikke så populær. Publikumskæledæggerne er Geromel og naturligvis Podolski og nu også Rensing.

Men rart, at der findes journalister, der tager konstruktiv kritik til sig. Og retter op. Tak til Frits Adler.

Jeg tænker i øvrigt på at kontakte Ståle Solbakken, hvis nu coachen har brug for en personlig coach. Han får i hvert fald sin sag for i Köln, både inden for klubbens mure og med omgivelserne i mediebyen. Jeg glæder mig virkelig til at se, hvad der kommer ud af det. Forhåbentlig først og fremmest stabilitet, og på lidt længere sigt étcifrede placeringer i slutstillingen.

Mer stonn zo dir, FC Kölle!!

Bjørn Clasen

Un faux chemin vers le mauvais but

2011-05-23T08:19:00.000+02:00

« Le rêve d’indépendance financière est toujours très répandu dans les pays industrialisés. Voilà pourquoi nous nous échinons toute la journée et passons le plus clair de notre temps à travailler, alors que la plupart d’entre nous n’arriveront jamais à être vraiment « libres ». L’argent et le prestige occupent les deux plus hautes marches de notre système personnel de valeurs, avant même la famille et les amis. C’est d’autant plus étonnant que l’échelle de valeurs des économistes du bonheur est exactement l’inverse. Selon cette évaluation, il n’y a rien qui rende plus heureux que les relations interpersonnelles, c’est-à-dire les échanges avec sa famille, son ou sa partenaire, ses enfants et ses amis. En deuxième position vient le sentiment d’être utile ; puis, selon les circonstances, arrivent la santé et la liberté. Si l’on se fie donc à cette échelle de valeurs, on peut dire que la plupart des gens des pays riches se trompent en accordant autant d’importance à l’argent : ils ne font que prendre de mauvaises décisions. Ils cherchent à atteindre une sécurité qu’ils n’auront sans doute jamais. Ils sacrifient leur liberté et leur autonomie pour un salaire toujours plus élevé. Et ils achètent des choses dont ils n’ont pas besoin pour impressionner des gens qu’ils n’aiment pas avec de l’argent qu’ils n’ont pas. »

Richard David Precht
Dans l’essai « Vanuatu — les îles de la félicité. Qu’est-ce qu’une vie heureuse ? »

The European Union is not attractive

2011-04-18T20:38:00.002+02:00

‘The European Union has somehow lost its sex appeal. There is no clear direction, and that is a problem […]. The current President, Barroso, is a bureaucrat; nobody knows the others in the European Union top.’

Jacek Kochanowicz, professor at the University of Warsaw
in Berlingske Tidende, 6 April 2011: ‘Let forkølelse i Polen’ by Michael Kuttner
(quotation translated from Danish to English by Bjørn Clasen)

Fjæsbogslogik

2011-03-25T18:02:00.003+01:00

Little-known bands, Part VII:

2011-03-16T09:08:00.000+01:00

Mango Mache

Beloved 'Mama of soul', born around 79 in the poor outskirts of Forquanesian (ERO) as Bisou Mukelele Machéba. After a troubled childhood and youth, during which she lived on the street most of the time, she started to become the symbol for those struggling for their existence in the unfavoured neighborhoods of Forquanesian, by singing with different soul folk groups in cafés and clubs from a mature age.

As this suburban music style became popular with a wider audience both geographically and in terms of society class, she was considered a pioneer, and her amazing and powerful voice soon echoed from radios all over Central Alouang.

Without ever having aimed for it, she suddenly began earning even very good money. Donating a major part of it to the groups of people sharing her background, Mango Mache has never left her roots behind. While frequenting parts of the intellectuals' higher layers, she still lives in a suburb of Forquanesian.

In recent years, Mango Mache has not only given concerts but also recorded with a wide range of musicians known from other genres.

Muzicq

Fusion project from Forquanesian (ERO), combining most everything from jazz and funk via classical elements to pop and new wave, and consisting of sometimes up to 30 musicians and singers.

As forerunners for this kind of musical collective, where the values are peace, love and no drugs, Muzicq gained enormous popularity in Alouang and beyond already with their first release, their self-titled EP from 32. Especially the songs Zabou Et La Détente [Zabou And Relaxation] and Danse Vers La Lumière [Dance Towards The Light] got a whole lot of airplay and were both included in new, more profesionally recorded versions on the full album Écoute [Listen], released the year after.

Currently Muzicq are working on a new album sung in Savanese, incorporating musicians playing traditional instruments as well as tribe singers from Southwestern Alouang.

The Porridgeheads

Speedrock band formed in Westwimpton (LTL). With what one music critic called 'melodic noise', this band of wild youngsters gained cult status.

Though The Porridgeheads released no less than five regular studio albums in just three years, its lineup changed constantly ― the band has been everything from a quartet to a septet, with keyboarder and occasional singer Mark Boling and bass player Rich(ard) Coolman being the only ones featuring on all albums.

The debut Green Porridge was released in May 32 and was followed by White Porridge only four(!) months later. May 33 saw the release of Pink Porridge, a surprising experiment with strong psychedelic influences, just as courageously remixed on Pink Pudding, released two months later.

The changing band members' obvious alcohol and drug abuse ― on a couple of recordings, assumed rhythm guitar player Sandy Sawker is credited with doing nothing but 'providing and utilising dope' ― laid The Porridgeheads still for a while before they suddenly re-emerged on what became their biggest success: Red Porridge, which hit the stores in June 34 and was followed up by the Xmas release of a highly-praised live album, Served With Sugar.

Whether the success or the drugs was the main factor will remain subject for discussion, but the band completely flopped musically and commercially on the March 35 release Black Porridge. Trying to compensate for the cult rockers' fading status, their record company released a B side collection titled Pooridge, which sarcastically did not do the trick, and The Porridgeheads officially dissolved in August the same year, although in reality it had happened months before. One last breath was the Xmas release of Headful Of Porridge, a 'best of' compilation.

Little-known bands, Part VI:

2011-03-15T09:06:00.000+01:00

Jesus Barnet

Singer-songwriter from South Bollonam (COC), mainly known for his political lyrics questioning modern society. His 28 debut A White Scream In A Dark Room was highly praised by indie reviewers but did not sell particularly well, as Barnet refused to distribute it via a big company when offered to. Barnet is known for working concentrated, and following his debut he was very studio-productive even though he spent a lot of time on the road.

In 29, he released Oh Sewage, followed by Cement Lawn (30) and Jesus Barnet Plays Live (31). The fans then had to wait three years before he sent out what he himself described as his ultimate achievement, the double album This Minute's Mantra. Controversially, Barnet insisted on using fragile newsprint as paper for the CD booklet in order to show how perishable today's music is.

Défense d’afficher

This rock quartet from Rhauvain (ARN) of course took its name from the numerous wall signs saying 'post no bills'. What started out as an unambitious leisure project ― the band members themselves not really believing it when an agent came backstage after a gig at a high school, offering a record deal ― would turn out to be a surprising turn in the four blokes' lives.

The debut album ended up simply being called L'album (released 30), following disputes on the title between band members and record company people. Apart from the name, Défense d'afficher saw the recording as a one-time experience and did still not take it too seriously. L'album did not sell particularly well either, and so much bigger was their surprise when they were offered a deal for three more albums.

This time, there were no disagreements on the name; the 32 release was called Ça devient sérieux [It's Getting Serious]. One can nearly hear the nervousness lurking just beneath the surface compared to the unimpressed straight-forwardness of the first album, and commercially it did more or less similarly.

The band now decided to take a break, though with the aim of fulfilling the remainder of the record deal and then get on with their lives. During his 34 summer vacation, the drummer had a stroke of creativity and wrote a song called De Toute Façon [translates as something like 'Anyway']. It was a simple, nearly banal earcatcher of a rock song, and he persuaded the other band members to record it as a single in order to kick off Défense d'afficher's return to the studio.

Released for the Xmas sales, De Toute Façon surprisingly became a radio hit overnight, only to become the bestselling Arn single ever!

The sudden boost of encouragement caused by this unexpected success resulted in a fast but efficient recording of the quartet's most mature and harmonic album, carrying the same title as the smash hit and released in 35. The band having only put together six other songs of their own, De Toute Façon contains no less than three cover versions.

Pink Dawn

Funky rock trio from Käpumman: Selma Öyring (lead vox and guitar), Aske Olsson (guitar) and Severin-Otto Yrkman (keyboards and percussion).

Implementing its own style, mixing funk, acid jazz and sometimes ethno elements into a rock base, Pink Dawn was among the first bands from the independent scene to be put on the more commercial record shops' shelves as well. The debut album Pink Dawn from 23 thus sold well in both 'camps', and the band, supplied by a bass player and a drummer, became a hit at mainly rock festivals but also at alternative jazz events.

The 25 single Good Day Mr Faraway landed a surprising success because of its B side Fool Me, which was not even featured on the album that followed, titled Vulgar. After touring most of the world for 1½ years, band members were exhausted and eventually split up. While Öyring took on a never very successful solo career, Olsson quit the music business to concentrate on his family and take on a 'civil' job. Yrkman became a producer and guest musician, mainly in the independent part of the house scene.

Little-known bands, Part V:

2011-03-14T09:01:00.000+01:00

Archery Contest

Rock band from Birliont (KRA) fronted by the bespectacled intellectual Maurice D'Entracte. The songs were in English, which might be part of the reason why Archery Contest never became superstars in their own country. However, the remarkable concept album And How Do I Water The Flowers?, released in 29, harvested critics' acclaim even in faraway corners of the world. It quotes large parts of the kloish philosopher Nikolaj Salgod's work Hvis Livet Er En Vase [If Live Is A Vase].

Bushbone

Pop band from Wimpton (WEV) whose first single She Is Earth, She Is Sky, She Is Ice, She Is Soul went straight to number 1 on the Miseira charts. This ballad of the classic kind is now followed by the more dynamic (but still classic) 40 Ways, released with Bushbone's self-titled debut album.

The Inches

Quartet from Buenos Caire (MÕE) with a style bringing together poprock, hardrock and the occasional touch of electrojazz. The four blokes aged between 20 and 23 formed at the conservatory of São Vicente and got almost immediate attention from not only local but also international agents.

The debut single 1000 released in the spring of 35 rocketed into the hit lists in most of Miseira and the album that followed, titled One Thousand, is one of the 50 most sold albums this year. It will be interesting to follow the band's development and success in the future.

Little-known bands, Part IV:

2011-03-13T08:28:00.006+01:00

Fette Farben

Indie-rock band from Ralbjerg (RAL). Despite its name, which makes fun of the Baring language, the band is known for serious lyrics about society's outsiders, melancholic state of life, and mostly unhappy love. Fette Farben has become a well-known name in the gig world of most of the Nexboean-speaking parts of Nexdomtaso, yet remains without a record contract. That is why the band released the self-financed 8-track album Schwarz in 5000 copies in November 34, together with the promotional single Nete Fra Nordbyen.

The Ground

Quartet from Mock Quisbee (LAR) whose slow, at times almost silent indiepop-style songs were often based on social questions. The best known example is the cult classic Anonymous Android (from the third album Waiver) whose lyrics about alienation in a materialistic society are reputed to be the most-quoted on Larnese wall graffittis.

The Ground was formed in 23 by university dropout Phileas Noice (vox and bass) and two of his former university mates, Peter Hamilton (guitar) and Rüdiger Althmann (keyboards), the latter being an exchange student from Innstadt (BAL). Norbert Wick, originally from Overwind (LAR), soon joined on drums. The debut album Fragments Of Outer Life was released in October 23 and highly praised by indie critics but never sold very well. Gone Jigging from March 25 didn't do much better but gave the band enough material to tour for nearly two years, mostly to universities and underground clubs around the Chanalian Islands.

Waiver, partly recorded during the tour, was not finalised and released until December 30. An everything but streamlined ragbag of rough recordings on one side and more polished arrangements than on the former albums on the other side, this 23-song double album became the band's biggest commercial success, not least because of Anonymous Android. One reason for the long production time of the album was that Althmann tragically died in an accident in January 28. The keyboards and synths were taken over first by by Eastwimpton music conservatory graduate Michael Sothburn and later by a childhood friend of Wick's, Mickey Winder.

The Ground's last album ― and only the fourth in 12 years ― entitled Tales Of Metropolitan Wisdom was released in June 35.

Posh Hippies

Rock band from Fredericaville (VMI), formed and lead by singer, guitarist and keyboarder Julian Evermore (real name Julian Madison, born 10 in Fredericaville as the son of a mostly unemployed blacksmith and a committed mother who earned a living for her alcoholic husband and seven children by hard work of different kinds).

Julian had always been fond of music and got his first guitar from a junkyard at the age of 8. A 16-year old cousin gave Julian guitar lessons in return for carrying light drugs for him. A highly creative mind, Julian seemed to never notice that he was marginalised both by teachers and pupils at school. He set up theatre plays but was eventually thrown out of secondary school because he caused a scandal in front of parents as a play he had written and directed turned out to be lewd.

After a few years of taking on occasional jobs to help his mother, he got in touch with a Fredericaville pub owner, formed a 5-piece band almost overnight, and gave a gig of crazy and mostly improvised songs. This was in early spring 32. The producer Mick Farnell from the growing Be At Ease label happened to be in the pub that night. Rumours say he was drunk but he did sign a contract with the band... that in fact had no name. Evermore came up with 'Posh Hippies', inspired by an ad in which the words 'hush puppies' were used.

Only two months later, the weird but joyfully melodical poprock album In A World Of Green was released. It became one of that year's biggest commercial successes but Evermore and his everchanging band members never got a lot of money out of it, as Farnell took the biggest share, especially from the revenues on other continents. For example, the only single Hayadoo became a summer plague in parts of Nexdomtaso, and the concerts that Farnell arranged for the band to give at festivals there turned out to be a bad deal financially for the Posh Hippies.

After one such concert, the band split, or rather Julian Evermore sent the others back to Fredericaville, leaving two concert commitments unfulfilled. His current whereabouts are not known.

For et tæt nordisk samarbejde

2011-03-11T05:49:00.002+01:00

»Frimandsætter, ranke, høje,
Sol og Blæst i Haar,
Kraft i Haand og Lys i Øje,
fylker Nordens Gaard«

Kaj Munk
“Saml Dig, Nord!” — Nationaltidende 10. juli 1938

Little-known bands, Part III:

2011-03-11T05:42:00.002+01:00

Curfew At Five

Electronica duo from Eastwimpton (LAR) ― Sammy (Samuel) Jockbird on vox and synths and Pete Barnett on synths. The debut album They Came From East, released in 32, already sold well on the emerging electronica scene. But it was the smash hit Piece Of Mind (yes, 'Piece', not 'Peace') from the 34 album bearing the same title that wrote Curfew At Five into the history books. That song remains a dancehall favourite.

Selfish Shellfish

Tractor or rather trawler rockabilly band from Fesøyer (RAL). Nearly a fixed ingredient on festival posters in Ralbjerg and Eigaland with their outrageous energy on stage and ability to get a crowd rocking and rolling. At the same time, Selfish Shellfish manages to release an album nearly every year, the first three or four being heavily helped financially by Fesøyer's patriotic cultural foundation, despite the fact that only few of the septet's songs are in the Fesøyer language.

Sérieux s'abstenir

Rock group from Qoullux (QLX) ― Jean-Vincent Carteboulière (percussion), Hugues Chabrel (keyboard), Jonatan Hurgues (lead guitar), Yvon Lemaire (bass) and Fernand Valavat (vox and rhythm guitar). The name Sérieux s'abstenir [Serious People Should Refrain] is a joke on the words 'Curieux s'abstenir' [Curious People Should Refrain], which often appear at the end of real estate adverts in order not to get calls from persons who are just curious.

However, the band's biggest hits are mainly more serious and often subtly romantic ballads, such as Peintures de Marilène [Paintings Of Marilène], Rendez-vous hi-fi, Anges de classe [Classy Angels], Soudain, la vie... [Suddenly Life Will...], Roses or Une entité fragile [A Fragile Entity] ― but many will remember the rocker with the parodic lyrics Sarah, je bande [Sarah, I Have An Erection] too.

The band split in 30 after thirteen years and ten albums (not including a live and a greatest hits) but reformed in September 35 to give a concert in Qoullux' Auditorium. The concert was reported sold out an hour after presales started. This success combined with the announcement that a DVD containing the concert and a documentary on the band will be released for Xmas has started speculations whether Sérieux s'abstenir will go on tour again and maybe even record a new album.

Når inspirationen lever

2011-03-10T09:08:00.003+01:00

»Jeg er stolt og meget glad for at “Kald det kærlighed” stadig er så livskraftig, som den er.
Jeg vil ydmygt sige tusind tak til inspirationen: Hun åndede på mig den nat i 1985, hvor sangen kom til sig selv. Før blækket var tørt var “Kald det kærlighed” kravlet ned af køkkenbordet og ud af kattelemmen i bagdøren. Først langt senere opdagede jeg, at den var forsvundet ud i natten for at leve sit helt eget liv i Danmark.«

Lars Lilholt
KODA Nyt 2008

Little-known bands, Part II:

2011-03-10T09:00:00.003+01:00

Quite Polite

Ska rock band from Lack Quisbee (LTL). Originally known as Cream On The Floor, under which name the band released one (self-titled) album in 29, Quite Polite has somewhat revived the ska wave that peaked twenty years before. The breakthrough album Madam, released in 31, featured the provocative hit single (Fuck You) Madam as well as the instrumental town festival plague Ska It Up.

Due to quarrels within the band, causing members to quit only to join again, the follow-up album Superhero Social Counsellor was not released until 35. Surprisingly, it shows a matured and more guitar-dominated rock style.

u.degl.

Techno pop trio from Zwe (BUC): Rüdiger Fischfanger (vox and synths), Helmut Schönbrunn (synths and the occasional orchestral instrument) and Max Heber (synth percussions).

Landed a big dancefloor hit in 33 with Hantadorf Blues from the album Solange Vorrat Reicht, which for many redefined the techno scene. The band name is an abbreviation of 'und dergleichen', meaning 'and similar'.

Vic Moon

Self-proclaimed and self-ironising pop god born in Blona (ROJ) as Viktor Kesal but fled to Käpumman with his family when he was six. Originally part of the band Midday Dream, which had a lonely hit with So Lonely, So Slow back in 18, He plays such diverse instruments as guitar, synthesizer, harmonica, or harp, but it is mainly his voice that deserves critial acclaim.

Vic Moon's first albums all have titles as if they were compilations and are thus easily mixed up: Best Of Vic Moon (debut, 19), The Very Best Of Vic Moon (21), All The Best Of Vic Moon (24), Vic Moon's Greatest Hits (27), Vic Moon's Greatest (29), Vic Moon's Best Live (30)... before he suddenly chose the completely different title Blue Sky (32)... maybe because that same year his real best of album ironically entitled Greatest Tits was released.

Kun knapheden mangler

2011-03-09T07:35:00.001+01:00

»Måske er det simpelt hen sådan her, livet ville være, hvis ikke døden fandtes. Hvis afslutningen på alting ikke konstant lå på lur i hver eneste handling og hviskede til én, at tiden er begrænset. Og at man derfor pinedød må nyde det, mens Jorden nærmer sig. Herinde i Second Life er der ikke knaphed på noget som helst. Ud over lige den ene ting, der giver det hele mening: knapheden selv.»

Nils Thorsen
fra artiklen “Sidste kapitel: Panik før lukketid” (Politiken 20/8-7)

Little-known bands, Part I:

2011-03-09T07:28:00.004+01:00

File Not Found

'Old computer'-style electro trio consisting of the Baringers Heiko Tüsch and Günter Warnich and the Käp Anders Ölgren, all on synths and programming.

Already the self-titled 22 debut album featured two Top 50 singles: File Not Found and Digital Woman. The latter became a classic in electro music, and its beats and sounds have inspired or been used in many a song of the genre since. The second album was released in early 23 and bore the title 10 as this is the binary equivalent of '2'. It sold well too, critics saying this was mainly due to the success of the debut.

Before the band even started its tour to promote 10, Ölgren quit, officially due to family matters. After the tour, the band ironically moved its base and home studio from Baringers Stadt to Coast City, resulting in the entirely self-produced 25 release Numeric Boy featuring the moderately successful single Diamond Star. The inspiration of the new surroundings were obvious, yet the duo did not seem to have a real grip on their style. A fourth album kept being delayed, and meanwhile ― just before Xmas 27 ― a smaller local record company released Pixels, a compilation of File Not Found's favourite tracks according to themselves, as well as previously unreleased rare tracks and a few B sides.

The material for the 'real' album was never finished, and Tüsch and Warnich increasingly spent their time as DJs and in Tüsch's case also as a producer. It was not until 31 that the album Binary Breath came out. It contained none of the material recorded for the intended fourth album; instead Tüsch had profited from the contacts he had acquired as a producer, and the sound on Binary Breath was new and fresh. It became File Not Found's comeback as electro gurus, a.o. featuring the #2 single Microphonic, Part II.

Mildred & The Mildreds

Acid electro heavy metal quintet from Gollsea (WEV) consisting of four men and a woman... whose name is not Mildred but Jane Sowyer, and who is not the lead singer but the bass player.

The other band members are Phil(eas) McOak (lead vox and guitar), Virgil Spinton (vox and guitar), James Millick (synths) and Simon John (vox and percussions).

The first album Tempted By Pain, released in November 30, did not find a large public, being too trashily violent for even many heavy metal fans' taste. February 33 saw the release of the much more commercial Horrorscope, a.o. featuring a cover version of an old Strit Ut B-side, Come To Heaven. It became the best selling hardrock release of 33, and a follow-up is due later this year.

You Noisy Bastards

DJ duo — Chris Jenkinson and Bern Lovelord — formed in 28 under the name Jenbern. At the time Jenkinson was 16 and Lovelord 15, both attending Bullyhead Boarding School in the Larnese countryside.

Especially Jenkinson was expected to graduate with high marks and move on to law school. He did get high marks but he never even applied for law school. So widely known was the reputation of the two DJs, and so high was the self-confidence of Lovelord that he dropped out of Bullyhead before his final year, after having convinced Jenkinson to skip further studies and attempt a career as professional DJs, scratchers, samplers and eventually even music composers.

It is unclear when the name You Noisy Bastards came up — but at least there are no recordings under the old name. The duo released three self-produced and self-financed mini albums within 15 months in 31 and 32 before signing the highest debut record deal. Jenkinson and Lovelord insisted that their albums would also be released on vinyl, something extraordinary in those years.

The debut, ironically called Bullyhead was a commercial disappointment, and the record company wanted to buy the duo out of the second album in the contract. Again, it was Lovelord's amazing self-confidence and energy that talked the company into letting You Noisy Bastards use the studio for just three weeks, without paying producers etc., and release the second album after all.

The result was a far more dancehall style album of just 36 minutes. 6-Colour Heaven was soon to become a mega hit with DJs in most of the world.

hewlett-packard goes international

2011-02-15T10:22:00.007+01:00

I just installed an hp scanner. A pretty long procedure. But the best is this message that showed up. It contains no less than four different languages, on one and the same screen! The window has a Danish frame with German instruction texts, and the ‘front’ message’s title and buttons are in English, with the essential written in Dutch.

Just to add even a little more spice, I live in Luxembourg and only had the choice of registering my scanner in French.

What really worries me though, is that those are exactly the six languages I speak on a decent conversation level. Is hp affiliated with the CIA or something? I just wanted to install a scanner…

A kinda wish list I guess

2011-01-11T10:14:00.008+01:00

A not-too-expensive but reliable scanner

Jane Eyre photo book

A Victorian suit, maybe from Gentleman’s Emporium

tv•2: Showtime (CD)

Bret Easton Ellis: ‘Imperial Bedrooms’ and ‘Under Nul’ (books, in Danish)

Concert ticket for tv•2

Palle Schmidt: ‘Den Nye Generation — Dansk Møbeldesign 1990-2005’

A thingy that can record directly from cassette tapes to MP3 (something like this)

An iPhone, preferrably with at least 64 MB

A massage ‘subscription’

Harmonica lessons (for example Harmonica Academy, JP Allen, Harmonica Breeze.com or Lars Ringgaard: Lær At Spille Mundharpe)

Tickets to 1. FC Köln’s games (home and away) always welcome

En 8-årig om Afrika

2011-01-07T18:47:00.007+01:00

»AFRIKA.

I afrika ligger landene: Madagaskar, Tunesien, Algeriet, Marokko, Libyrien, Ægypten, Mongritanien, Mali, Niger, Tchad, Soud, Ethiopien, Somal, og mange flere. Der gror: kaffe, kakao, tobak, majs, ris, oliven, bananer, rosiner, kokosnødder, citroner, og meget andet. Uden om det ligger søer, have, floder, o.s.v., de hedder: Alanterhavet, Middelhavet, Det Røde Hav, Indiske Hav, og andre. Det grænser til Saudi Arabien og ligger tæt på Europa og Asien, f.eks. Spanien ligger meget tæt på Marokko. Jeg kender kun to hoved-stader, det er: Alger og Tunis, Alger ligger i Algeriet og Tunis ligger i Tunesien.

skrevet af BJØRN CLASEN.«
den 11. februar 1981

Happiness

2011-01-07T11:45:00.005+01:00

‘[T]here is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow-creatures,
and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.’
Charlotte Brontë
in ‘Jane Eyre’ (chapter 22)

Greenlandic rock

2011-01-04T12:59:00.001+01:00

Find more artists like Arctic Spirits at Myspace Music

Ideas for next London trip

2010-12-13T19:47:00.004+01:00

Stroll Portobello Market again

Join a guided tour of Wembley Stadium

Go to the theatre, possibly a fringe/off-West End one

…also, watch a play in Shakespeare’s Globe

Join a day trip to Stonehenge, Bath and maybe Windsor (plenty of providers, for example this one or:)

All I want for Xmas…

2010-12-07T11:05:00.002+01:00

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre adapted for the stage by June Lowery by Fotini Kaparelou | Make Your Own Book

Clasen Coaching & Consulting — the final ad

2010-11-22T12:58:00.000+01:00

Click on the photo to see the ad in a higher resolution

So this is how it will look, the advertisement in the programme for the play ‘Jane Eyre’, which opens in Luxembourg next week.

A huge thank you to each and everyone of you who gave frank, insightful and useful feedback.

The draft ad certainly was subject of debate, both on this blog and on Facebook (not so much on LinkedIn though). It made for a highly interesting and self-reflective process. And I'd like to share some of the conclusions.

The picture

The photo used for the ad turned out to be somewhat controversial. Most agreed that it has a relaxed feel. Whether this is good or bad depends — as everything else — on the viewer. Criticism included ‘it looks like a tourist brochure’. And that I look like a dreamy (one even said ‘sleepy’) New Age hippie. The most creative comment was that I ought to look more assertive.

Other people — and I'll invite those to a party later on :) — really liked that it is ‘so me’. Not in the sense that I am a sleepily dreamy New Age hippie but that the picture expresses genuineness and ‘what you see is what you get’. In other words, it is honest — one of the virtues that characterises a good coach.

The more technical perfectionists also pointed out that the picture of me looks inserted and blurred/in low resolution. Not untrue either, as I faded the background in order for the text to be readable, and enlarged ‘me’.

The text

Most people liked the catchphrase ‘Find your horizons. Then reach them.’ and felt it went well with the photo.

On the other hand, the quote from ‘Jane Eyre’ and especially the sentence following it: ‘Today, he would have called his coach.’ led to confusion. On Facebook I had not explained the context — basic mistake.

As the ad will appear only in the aforementioned theatre programme, those who see it will know what the quote means. If they pay attention to the play, that is :). Otherwise I would not have used that quote, or at least not the concluding sentence ‘Today, he would have called his coach.’

The very useful technical suggestions included: ‘clarify that you're a life coach’, ‘make the word 'coach' more visible’, ‘link the quote to the 'Today…' sentence by using the same font’, and ‘eliminate the full stops, 'cause that's German’…

There were also a few who did not think the text was sufficiently visible and suggested I change colours. Others loved the colour scheme.

Changes

So what did I choose to change? Well, first of all, I chose to keep the photo. It is true that the confusion argued by some was mainly due to the ‘Jane Eyre’ quote and the horizon thing coming from two different idea worlds, as a professionel Graphic Artist and former colleague pointed out.

As 1) my hair colour is different these days because of the play, 2) I am not photogenic on portraits especially (yes, I did try), and 3) I did not have instant access to a good camera, it turned out not to be an option to change the portrait within this short deadline.

Then I could have left out the photo altogether, skipped the horizon part (including catchphrase) and used just the ‘Jane Eyre’ reference. But a photo does catch people's attention much more than words, plus this particular photo provides a surprising contrast inside a theatre programme. So people will notice. Criterion number one — check.

Conclusion: I used the same photo but with me in the original size, meaning smaller than in the draft (thank you, Frederik!).

Textwise, I added ‘Life and Career Coach’ (thank you, Pierre-Yves) and also chose to centre my contact details. After a lot of moving around, deleting, re-inserting, re-moving around and changing and re-changing colours between my logo's green and blue and the nature-brown from the photo, I finally ended up keeping both the catchphrase, the quote (never thought of removing it for this particular ad) and the ‘Today…’ sentence. But —

— I emphasised the quote, making it more of the eyecatcher. In order to clarify and link it to ‘Today, he would have called his coach’, I also added the first name of the character who says the quote, and I changed ‘Today…’ to the same font. Except for the word ‘coach’, which I (thanks, Maruška) emphasised by leaving it in the same font as the (now former) catchphrase and my contact details.

This and the added ellipsis (‘…’) should link it directly to ‘Find your horizons. Then reach them.’, which I instead moved down right before my contact details as a kind of slogan (and therefore had to keep the full stops as it is now on one line). I could have left out this phrase but then — again — I should leave out the photo too, and most people did like the slogan. Which is why I will probably use it in future ads, maybe as a real catchphrase like in the draft, and might therefore as well use it in my first ad. So people will recognise. Criterion number two — check.

Like it or not. Bad ads are better than indifferent ones. And this one certainly did not leave anyone indifferent. Criterion number three — check.

So it won't be the last time I encourage you to contribute with your criticisms, your ideas …and your praise. I appreciated it, all of it. Thanks again! Spread the word!! And do come see ‘Jane Eyre’, so you will know when Edward Rochester says those famous words.

Bjørn Clasen
Clasen Coaching & Consulting

Clasen Coaching & Consulting — draft ad

2010-11-19T14:23:00.008+01:00

Click on the picture for a better resolution.

Tell me what you think of the ad!
Post a comment below — choose one adjective that you think describes it, and one verb telling me how the ad could be better.

And just be honest — no ‘niceness’ just in order to be nice :)

I appreciate your feedback!!

©2010 Bjørn Clasen

Mørkets manglende gråd

2010-09-02T11:28:00.002+02:00

»Disse øjeblikke, der forbandt natten med daggryet, var lange og mørke. Hvis bare jeg havde kunnet græde, havde alt været meget nemmere. Men hvad skulle jeg græde over? Hvem skulle jeg græde over? Jeg var alt for selvoptaget til at græde over andre og for gammel til at græde over mig selv.«
Haruki Murakami
i »Sønden For Grænsen Og Vesten For Solen«
(Mette Holms oversættelse fra japansk)

Great entrepreneurs are willing to be vulnerable

2010-08-15T22:06:00.003+02:00

‘To embrace the misfit in oneself is to be vulnerable. It is to forsake the easy acceptance that comes with fitting in and to instead be fortified by a kind of love, really. A love of life, a love of wonder, and, ultimately, a sustaining love for oneself.’
Dan Pallotta
in his blogpost ‘Misfit Entrepreneurs’ on Harvard Business Review

The Trend Of Encouraging Overeducation

2010-08-10T08:16:00.003+02:00

‘Even top-tier MBA degrees often say more about the desire to have an important credential
than about any greater capacity to be a good leader or manager.’
Michael Schrage
in ‘Higher Education Is Overrated; Skills Aren't’
on Harvard Business Review

Explore Your Landscape Of Life

2010-08-07T15:18:00.003+02:00

‘Life isn’t a project to be completed; it is an unknowable landscape to be explored. A 24-year-old can’t sit down and define the purpose of life in the manner of a school exercise because she is not yet deep enough into the landscape to know herself or her purpose. That young person — or any person — can’t see into the future to know what wars, loves, diseases and chances may loom. She may know concepts, like parenthood or old age, but she doesn’t really understand their meanings until she is engaged in them.’
David Brooks
from ‘The Summoned Self’ — opinion in The New York Times

Navnedigt I

2010-08-04T13:04:00.002+02:00

Tilegnet mestervrøvleren Halfdan Rasmussen.

Peter hedder Anders
og Børge hedder Bent.
Ole hedder Benny
men mangler lidt talent.
Freddy hedder Arne
og Bjarne er et snøvl.
At digte kræver ofte
at sig’ en masse vrøvl.

© Bjørn Clasen 2010

What Is Love?

2010-07-04T21:15:00.004+02:00

It is about giving or at least wanting to give. Most can agree on that. And after that? Hoping to receive? Wanting to receive? Expecting to receive? Demanding to receive? This discussion is about just that.

It started when I posted a comment on the article ‘Neva A. Lockhart on why Unconditional Love is a Lie’. Ms Lockhart then wrote back to me:

‘To know what love looks and feel like one would have to have all or most of their expectations met. This gives a person the ability to identify for themselves what their true love is. It is unrealistic, and unreasonable to think that True Love has no expectations, when we love we expect to be loved in return, even our pets expect a loving pat on the head, should we as humans expect anything less?’

My thoughts on the matter are that I don't disagree with either of Ms Lockhart or Saint-Exupéry, or rather I don't fully agree with either of them.

I do not believe that, in loving, one expects something in return. One hopes for something in return. And one's readiness to love can be badly shaken if love is unrequited.

That, in turn, leads to shielding oneself against love without expectations …the question is then whether love with expectations, as opposed to love with 'just' the hope that is a part of the feeling of love almost by definition, is actually really love or more like admiration, affection, or perhaps affiliation.

Love is a feeling, it is not something you can create or destroy in yourself. As with all emotions, you either feel it or you don't. That is the purity of love. And in that respect, I believe that talking about 'unrealistic' and 'unreasonable' is imposing something on love that it cannot be fit into: sense (in the meaning of 'reason').

Love very often is not sensible, does not make any sense. Even when it does, it is not sense that has caused the feeling to be born or to persist. Likewise, it is not sense that makes the feeling of love disappear.

So when we love, we give. When we give, we hope for something to return. Some call it 'invest'. Unlike other kinds of investment, we do not expect anything in return. We hope, though it is not the hope that drives us, that drives the feeling. The feeling is just …there.

Bjørn Clasen

Nogle af det danske landsholds højdepunkter

2010-06-14T07:00:00.000+02:00

For at varme lidt op til VM og troen på, at alt kan lade sig gøre, har jeg fundet nogle klip frem fra rød-hvide stjernestunder. Nyd dem. Og må vi få mere af den slags bold og grund til jubel i Sydafrika!

Vi blev for resten også europamestre engang…

Underholdende selv for uindviede:Anmeldelse af Dansk-Græsk Ordbog

2010-05-05T09:40:00.005+02:00

Dansk-Græsk Ordbog
af Rolf Hesse, Patakis Publications, 2008
(distribueres i Danmark af Museum Tusculanums Forlag)

Af Caspar Curdt-Christiansen

Tilbage i begyndelsen af 1990’erne studerede jeg græsk, altså nygræsk (det skal man altid præcisere for lige netop dette sprogs vedkommende), og ét blandt mange problemer, man som græskstuderende havde at kæmpe med på den tid, var manglen på dansk-græske/græsk-danske ordbøger. Der fandtes ganske vist nogle rejseparlører og ordlister, der vel lige netop var tilstrækkelige til, at man kunne bestille en ouzo på en bar, men for ethvert behov, der lå ud over det allermest prosaiske, måtte man ty til f.eks. engelsk-græske/græsk-engelske ordbøger. Stor var således min glæde – og overraskelse – da en af mine studiekammerater en dag kom forbi min studenterhybel i Thessaloniki og stolt fremviste en rigtig dansk-nygræsk ordbog: Rolf Hesses Dansk-Nygræsk Ordbog (Munksgaard, 1995); 28 000 opslagsord og 20 000 faste udtryk!

Sidenhen, i 1998, kom der også en nygræsk-dansk ordbog til (som jeg i parentes bemærket selv har medvirket til), udgivet på det græske forlag Patakis – og det er selvsamme forlag, der står for udgivelsen af denne nye gennemreviderede udgave af Dansk-Nygræsk Ordbog, der til lejligheden er blevet omdøbt til ”Dansk-Græsk Ordbog” uden det præciserende ”ny-” nævnt ovenfor. Lad os håbe, det ikke giver anledning til alt for mange fejlindkøb blandt landets klassiske filologer ...

Hvad er så det nye i den nye udgave? Ved første øjekast ser man, at forlaget Patakis’ valg af papirkvalitet, indbinding og typografi er bevaret, og det er faktisk ikke dårligt. Sammenlignet med førsteudgaven fra Munksgaard giver den nye udgave et solidt indtryk; hvordan den ser ud efter fem års intensiv brug, vil tiden vise, men det virker, som om den er beregnet på at blive brugt. Samtidig har den en luftig typografi med øget kontrast, der gør teksten behagelig at læse, men som naturligvis også koster plads. Således er sidetallet forøget med ca. 20 %, om end formatet sågar er lidt større. At ordbogen er blevet større, bekræftes af Museum Tusculanums pressemeddelelse, hvori følgende står at læse:

”Efter at have været udsolgt i nogle år er Rolf Hesses Dansk-Græsk Ordbog nu udkommet i en gennemrevideret, forøget og illustreret udgave. Ordbogen indeholder ca. 30 000 opslagsord med mange brugseksempler og idiomatiske udtryk; desuden en græsk grammatik med en udførlig liste over uregelmæssige verber, geografiske navne m.v. Bogen henvender sig både til danskere og grækere.”

Gennemrevideret, forøget og illustreret: Lad os indledningsvis se på disse tre i omvendt rækkefølge.

Illustreret

Allerede i forbindelse med udgivelsen af nygræsk-dansk ordbog fik Rolf Hesse den glimrende idé at lade en række svært oversættelige ord illustrere, f.eks. kunne den danske bruger se nydelige små tegninger af en bouzouki, en ikonostase eller andre særligt græske fænomener fra musikkens, den græsk-ortodokse kirkes eller gastronomiens verden. I den nye græsk-danske ordbog gentages succes’en, og den græske bruger kan således få forklaret ved hjælp af en tegning, hvad en pølsevogn, en nisse eller en lur (altså musikinstrumentet) er. En fremragende idé, synes jeg; det er egentlig besynderligt, at denne fremgangsmåde ikke er mere udbredt inden for leksikografien.

Forøget

Ifølge forordet er der tilføjet over tusind nye opslagsord og mange nye udtryk (f.eks. inden for informationsteknologi og mobiltelefoni). Samtidig anføres det, at ”nogle forældede ord og indtryk er fjernet eller reduceret, f.eks. inden for telegrafi”.
Ord som mobiltelefon og modem var der i forvejen, mens sms, hjemmeside og harddisk er kommet til – i selskab med verberne downloade og uploade. Ordene cd og cd-rom er blevet tilføjet, men moderniseringen har ikke strakt sig til dvd og dvd-rom, hvilket ellers ville have været nærliggende. Man må også lede forgæves efter usb-nøgle, lydkort eller kortlæser. Til gengæld er de temmelig forældede diskettestation og fjernskriver bevaret.
Andre ord, som der ville være god mening i at have med i en ny og forøget ordbog, men som man må lede forgæves efter er andengenerationsindvandrer, miljøbevidst eller måske grønne afgifter.
En af de sværeste beslutninger, når man laver en ordbog, er som bekendt spørgsmålet om, hvilke ord der skal tages med. Muligvis har det anvendte korpus her ikke været det allermest moderne. På den anden side skal man selvfølgelig også passe på med at fylde en ordbog med alskens døgnfluer, der ryger ud af sproget, lige så hurtigt som de kom ind. Det kan måske forklare, at man skal lede længe efter deciderede slangudtryk i ordbogen. Dog er der en del moderne dagligsprog – hvis man skal udtrykke det diplomatisk – herunder en række af de ord, som angiveligt er de første, skoleelever slår op, når de får en ny ordbog i hånden. Jeg finder det udmærket, at man f.eks. også får den ”moderne” betydning af et ord som rimelig (betydning 3 herunder):

rimelig adj 1. λογικός (~e priser λογικές τιμές), εύλογος 2. (mild) επιεικής (‑ής ‑ές) (en ~ afgørelse μια επιεικής απόφαση) 3. (adv: temmelig) αρκετά· (meget) πολύ ...

Under opslaget fed får vi også at vide, at det i daglig tale kan betyde ”super” – oversat med φανταστικός – og slår man op under røv, får man fuldgode oversættelser af både rend mig i røven, de tog røven på mig og være på røven – så der er taget et vist hensyn til de allermest kurante udtryk af denne art.

Gennemrevideret

Endelig får vi at vide, at ordbogen er gennemrevideret. ”Gennemrevideret” betyder vel, at der dels er blevet luget ud i gamle og forældede udtryk – som nævnt ovenfor – dels at egentlige fejl er blevet rettet. Jeg har med glæde kunnet konstatere, at en af de grimme fejl fra første udgave er blevet rettet: I første udgave kunne man læse sig til, at en billion på græsk ganske rigtigt hedder τρισεκατομμύριο, og at en trillion angiveligt også hedder τρισεκατομμύριο. Denne klassiske oversætterfejl (der formodentlig stammer fra, at der er blevet brugt engelsk-græske ordbøger som ”mellemled”) er i den nye udgave blevet fjernet – ganske enkelt ved at opslagsordet trillion er blevet fjernet, hvilket i øvrigt må siges at være en ganske fornuftig løsning, da man næppe nogensinde får brug for at kunne oversætte så høje tal.

Andre fejl er til gengæld blevet overset. Under opslaget højhed står udtrykket Deres kongelige højhed oversat med η αυτού Υψηλότης, hvilket strengt taget betyder hans kongelige højhed.

Endvidere er der blevet rettet igennem for at tage højde for diverse retskrivningsændringer siden 1995 (en ret omfattende opgave, da Dansk Sprognævn som bekendt ændrer retskrivningen ustandselig). Om end dette ikke er en retskrivningsordbog, så har brugeren en berettiget formodning om, at en nyudgivet ordbog er i overensstemmelse med gældende retskrivning (noget som visse ordbøger ikke gør sig særlig umage med). Således er alle ord indeholdende ”linie” blevet ændret til ”linje”, og ”AIDS” og ”TV” er nu skrevet med lille; til gengæld er ”VVS-installatør” ikke blevet ændret til ”vvs-installatør”.
Det samme gør sig gældende for slåfejlene: Nogle er blevet rettet (f.eks. ινκόγνκιτο til ινκόγκνιτο), mens andre er blevet overset (f.eks. står der under opslagsordet personregister stadig ”folkreregister”). Denne slags slåfejl må vel anses for at høre hjemme i småtingsafdelingen, om end det kan undre, at de ikke er blevet fanget i en stavekontrol. Mere beskæmmende er det, at min arbejdsplads er stavet forkert, og at oversættelsen til græsk heller ikke er anført korrekt: Europaparlamentet staves Europa-Parlamentet, hvis det skal være helt rigtigt, og mens det græske Ευρωκοινοβούλιο måske nok kan findes i avissprog, så er den korrekte titel altså Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο.

Positive/negative punkter

Ud over selve ordbogen (og dens forord) indeholder bogen også en kort gennemgang af både det danske og græske sprogs historie og en kortfattet grammatik for begge sprogs vedkommende. Det kan naturligvis ikke træde i stedet for en egentlig grammatik, men det er fint, at man får det mest basale med her. Endvidere er der en vejledning til ordbogen, hvor man bl.a. får at vide, at de græske substantivers og adjektivers bøjning ikke angives, når de følger de almindelige bøjninger (for substantivernes vedkommende: maskulinum med endelsen -ς, femininum med endelsen -α eller -η, neutrum med endelsen -ι eller -ο; for adjektivernes vedkommende, når endelsen i de tre køn er -ος -η -ο). Dette er en udmærket pladsbesparende foranstaltning, da selv den mest utrænede bruger må formodes at kende de mest almindelige bøjninger. Imidlertid får man ikke altid femininumsformen at vide, selv når endelsen ikke er en af ovennævnte; dette er navnlig problematisk, når det gælder personbetegnelser, der har forskellig endelse afhængig af køn. F.eks. opslagsordet livsnyder:

livsnyder -en -e γλεντζές

Her får vi altså blot én oversættelse med den usædvanlige maskulinumsendelse -ες, men man bliver ladt i stikken, hvis man gerne vil omtale en kvindelig livsnyder. Dette kan især undre med tanke på, at Nygræsk-dansk ordbog under γλεντζές tilføjer (f: γλεντζού). For taxachauffør får vi også kun maskulinumsformen ταξιτζής (jeg har trods alt set kvindelige taxachauffører i Grækenland, om end de næppe er så talrige som de kvindelige livsnydere ...). For ord som læge eller parlamentsmedlem får vi dog også femininumsformerne, hhv. ιατρίνα og βουλευτίνα.

Det er sjældent, at ordbøger er decideret belærende, men en gang imellem er det faktisk på sin plads, og jeg er ganske begejstret over følgende opslag:

græskkatolsk
(romerskkatolsk med græsk ritus) ελληνοκαθολικός
(fejlagtigt for: græskortodoks) ελληνορθόδοξος

Således hjælpes både den bruger, der rent faktisk er interesseret i den korrekte oversættelse af ”græskkatolsk” (religiøst mindretal, der hovedsageligt findes på de ioniske øer), og den bruger, der egentlig mener ”græskortodoks”.
En yderligere forbedring kunne eventuelt være at tilføje en betydning 3 med slangudtrykket ”græskkatolsk” i betydningen ”ligeglad” ...

På samme vis advares man om falske venner, sådan som det f.eks. ses i opslaget gymnasium:

gymnasi|um -et -er λύκειο (NB! γυμνάσιο betyder skolen fra 7.-9. skoleår)

Et punkt, der kunne forbedres ud fra et leksikografisk synpunkt, er den manglende skelnen mellem oversættelse og forklaring. F.eks. ser opslaget peberkage ud, som følger:

peberkage -n -r είδος μπισκότου (το)

Det kunne foranledige en til at tro, at en peberkage på græsk hedder είδος μπισκότου, men faktisk betyder det blot ”slags småkage” og er således en forklaring snarere end en oversættelse. Her ville det være at foretrække at anføre forklaringer tydeligt, f.eks. med kantede parenteser eller ved at bruge kursiv.
I tilfældet kolonihave derimod får man ikke blot en tegning (med vimpel og det hele), men også en forklaring angivet med ”(kan gengives)”:

kolonihave -n -r (kan gengives) περιβολάκι με σπιτάκι μέσα σε οργανωμένο πάρκο

Her er man ikke i tvivl om, at det er et kulturspecifikt fænomen, der bliver forklaret snarere end egentlig oversat.

Andre lande- eller kulturspecifikke fænomener er forklaret eller præciseret på fyldestgørende vis. Opslaget højesteret ser f.eks. således ud:

højesteret -ten -ter ανώτατο δικαστήριο, τριτοβάθμιο δικαστήριο· (i GR) Άρειος Πάγος

Brugeren får derved to anvendelige oversættelser for ordet højesteret, som kan anvendes til at betegne den danske (eller en hvilken som helst anden ikke-græsk) højesteret, men får samtidig at vide, at den græske højesteret har bevaret den klassiske benævnelse Areopagos. På samme måde kan man under parlament læse sig til, at et parlament hedder κοινοβούλιο, men det græske parlament hedder βουλή. Sådan skal det gøres!

Som sagt henvender ordbogen sig ifølge forordet og Museum Tusculanums pressemeddelelse både til danskere og grækere, og jeg synes, at forfatteren har gjort sig umage med at gøre denne ordbog lige anvendelig for både danskere og grækere, for så vidt angår udvalget af opslagsord, fraser og sætninger. Der er således blevet plads til en del ord, jeg ville opfatte som temmelig gammeldags, og som den danske bruger næppe ville slå op under, men som den græske bruger vil kunne få brug for, f.eks. hvis man læser ældre litteratur. Man kan f.eks. slå op under ikke blot påberåbe sig, men også beråbe sig på. Ligeledes finder man ikke kun det almindelige sæbeskum, men også sæbelud (begge oversættes med σαπουνάδα).
Dog er der ét punkt, hvor grækeren har brug for hjælp, men ikke får den: udtalen af danske ord (der som bekendt kan være temmelig uforudsigelig). Forfatteren gør selv opmærksom på denne mangel i forordet og henviser græske brugere til danske udtaleordbøger (en kort liste er vedlagt).

Derudover synes jeg, det er værd at bide mærke i, at cypriotisk græsk ikke nævnes med et ord. Man er vant til, at man i engelsksprogede ordbøger får oplysninger om sproglige forskelle mellem i hvert fald britisk og amerikansk engelsk. Noget tilsvarende gør sig ikke gældende med cypriotisk græsk her. Man kan naturligvis hævde, at cypriotisk græsk blot er en dialekt, og at der ikke er plads i en bilingval ordbog til dialektale ord, og under alle omstændigheder er det skrevne sprog i Cypern så godt som identisk med det græsk, der skrives i Grækenland. På den anden side er der tale om det sprog, der tales af befolkningen i et selvstændigt land, så det ville måske være på sin plads for visse glosers vedkommende at tilføje, at man i Cypern anvender et andet ord. Ellers kunne man i det mindste skrive et par ord om cypriotisk græsk i forordet.

Alt i alt synes jeg, at en i forvejen god ordbog er blevet endnu bedre. Uanset om man er oversætter, studerende eller blot bor i udlændighed, kan man kun være taknemmelig over, at der mellem to så relativt små sprog findes en så omfattende og vellavet ordbog.

Caspar Curdt-Christiansen
Oversætter, Europa-Parlamentet, Luxembourg

Ansvaret for denne artikel ligger hos forfatteren, og Europa-Parlamentet kan ikke på nogen måde gøres ansvarlig for de meninger, der kommer til udtryk heri.

4 minutter, der kan spare dig masser af penge

2010-03-04T13:47:00.004+01:00

Danmarks sang til VM i Sydafrika

2010-02-26T15:48:00.003+01:00

…kommer Nephew til at stå for ifølge gruppens e-nyhedsbrev i dag.
Jeg forestiller mig, at det kommer til at se ud cirka sådan hér:

Pretoria ligger i Cape Town
Som en ugly duckling
Bli'r vi red and white on countdown
En wannabe Darth Vader
Morten O. er glad
Og vi' Superliiiiiga
Med et South African World Cup smile
I rød og white står dit navn
Da-dam-da-da-da-dam DAAANMARK…

af Bjørn Clasen, 26/2-10
inspireret af »Re-Sepp-Ten« og forskellige Nephew-sange

What an...

2010-02-23T18:41:00.005+01:00

‘Some people do not know how to abbreviate 'assistant.' You really should not be abbreviating titles (or much else) on your résumé. To me, it indicates laziness in that you don't want to spend the time typing the extra letters.’
Abby Kohut, president and staffing consultant at Staffing Symphony, LLC
‘Weird things written on résumés’ by Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com

The Sin City Brewing Comapany's great logo

2010-02-11T23:42:00.005+01:00

This is an example of a great logo. It's fun, it's catchy — notice the devil's tail; the Sin City bar chairs have them too, incorporated in metal as part of the chairs' structure (unfortunately, I don't have any photos of one).

More about the brewery here. The stout tastes decent by the way.

Real-life Forrest Gump

2010-02-10T00:00:00.001+01:00

Review of the book One In A Hundred Million by Marion Urichich

Marion Urichich has a story to tell. In fact he has a lot of them. No wonder, as he suffers from ADHD — which makes it even more impressive that he has actually taken on the task (and finished it!) to write his memoirs and publish them.

And that's pretty much what this book is. A mix of stories and thoughts, without any structure or obvious order whatsoever. Sometimes entertaining, and always with wit. You can somehow sense that eternal grin on his face lurking behind every story, every sentence. Marion Urichich just loves to share.

The question is with whom. Urichich does not care, as long as somebody reads it. Somebody. In the very (very!) best case, this kind of book finds an audience with those who love to read about the U.S.American Dream (including the political points of view, which unfortunately confirm some of the prejudice that Europeans may have on untravelled U.S.Americans). Fair enough. That was the very best case.

More likely though, the book's audience is a limited private circle (often too private, as it is doubtful whether anybody really wants to hear about Mr Urichich's body functions and malfunctions). A circle that includes family members, and people who have come across him maybe. These seem to be quite a few, fortunately mainly for good and only a handful for worse — 'cause he has experienced quite a bit in his lively life.

This makes him a bit of a real-life Forrest Gump, a label that is emphasized by his writing which is by all means not very professional. The 'style' and 'structure', or rather lack of both, add to the authenticity and the charm of Urichich's book though. And, like Forrest Gump, there is one thing one cannot take away from him: He had the courage to tell his story, or rather stories, not giving a rat's ass (those would be his words) about what others may think.

review by Bjørn Clasen, on the author’s own request

The Freedom To Be Free — La liberté d'être libre

2010-02-09T07:40:00.007+01:00

‘Freedom has become a duty, not just a possibility.
But by becoming a constraint, it empties itself from its sense!’
Michela Marzano, philosopher
in Psychologies #292 (January 2010) — «Pourquoi nous hésitons?» (‘Why do we hesitate?’)
by Valérie Peronnet
quotation translated by Bjørn Clasen

« La liberté est devenue un devoir, pas seulement une possibilité.
Mais en devenant une contrainte, elle se vide de son sens! »
Michela Marzano, philosopher
in Psychologies Nº 292 (janvier) — «Pourquoi nous hésitons?» par Valérie Peronnet

We've Got M@il

2010-02-05T18:34:00.005+01:00

In Bratislava you don't just get a mailbox.
You get a mailbox and a sculpture!

© 2008 Bjørn Clasen. Use only with explicit permission.

Animal Magic

2010-02-04T07:36:00.004+01:00

In Luxembourg, pharmacies tend to be named after a lion. Which is already weird.
In Bratislava, it becomes surrealistic, as there is a pharmacy named after …a lobster!

Somewhere in between is probably the best choice. They say that dolphins provide the best cure one can imagine.

© 2008 Bjørn Clasen. Use only with explicit permission.

A buckle is not just a buckle

2010-02-03T09:05:00.001+01:00

Isn't it fascinating how many aspects are considered when designing a buckle to securely fasten a backpack?
And even more so the effort Duraflex goes through to actually inform the buyer about these aspects. More buckle for the buck...

A Man with a Ball

2010-02-02T07:08:00.004+01:00

I wonder what this sign means…

Maybe that men with hats playing football on the street will be injured and bandaged?

Bratislava

© 2008 Bjørn Clasen. Use only with explicit permission.

Am Skandalspiel in 1982 war die FIFA selbst Schuld

2010-02-01T10:14:00.001+01:00

»Okay, da war das Spiel gegen Österreich. Aber daran war die FIFA selbst schuld. Algerien hatte am Vortag gespielt und so wussten beide Mannschaften, dass ihnen das Ergebnis genügt. Wenn sie dann noch die gleiche Sprache sprechen, kommt halt so was dabei heraus.«
Klaus Fischer

(beiden Teams genügte im abschließenden Gruppenspiel ein knapper Sieg des deutschen Teams, um in die Zwischenrunde zu kommen. Nach dem 1:0 von Horst Hrubesch in der elften Minute begnügten sich Deutschland und Österreich damit, den Ball im Mittelfeld hin und her zu spielen. Die Partie ging als Nichtangriffspakt von Gijon in die Annalen ein; d.-Red. NFV).

Warning! Art!

2010-01-31T12:04:00.006+01:00

The Multicolouredness Of A Multilingual Blog

2010-01-30T08:33:00.000+01:00

There is a bit of everything on this blog, and it contains posts in no less than 22 different languages. To give you an overview, and a quick access to all the subjects, click on the labels below.

There are of course some overlaps, and subjects like ‘philosophy’ and ‘sociology’ are interpreted broadly as they touch so many aspects of life. On the other hand ‘coaching’ and ‘communication’ are recently-added labels, and you will find posts on these subjects in other categories as well.

Happy reading! There's a lot of fun in here! And, oh, you might learn something new ;)

My Wish List :)

2010-01-28T21:51:00.007+01:00

Electronic stuff
Phone headset with mute (for example Plantronics S 12)
Small and practical webcam for a Mac laptop
Navigation system with TMC, 44 European countries (and maybe North America) and MP3 player (if possible including headphone jack) — for example Mio Moov Spirit Flat S 568 or Mio Moov Spirit Flat Full Europe (ask the dealer what the difference actually is) or something from Becker + holder kit for the car
…and of course a car for the navigation system :)

DVDs
Dark Star
Der Lehrer — Die Komplette Serie
Heroes — Season 1 (or the whole series, i.e. Season 1 through 3)
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
Monty Python: Almost The Truth — The Lawyer's Cut
What About Bob?
Kvinden Der Drømte Om En Mand

CDs
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives: Communion
Ian Brown: My Way
Kent: Röd
Steffen Brandt: Baby Blue
Meiko: Meiko
Githead: Landing
A Place To Bury Strangers: Exploding Head
Florence + The Machine: Lungs
Sandra: Reflections — The Reproduced Hits (Special Edition)
Institute: Distort Yourself
The Dodos: Time To Die
Au Revoir Simone: Still Night, Still Light
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Girls: Album
Secret Machines: The Road Leads Where It's Led
Secret Machines: Secret Machines
Rivers Cuomo: Alone — The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo
Rivers Cuomo: Alone II — The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo
Jason Lytle: Yours Truly, The Commuter
Erasure: Nightbird
Reverend & The Makers: A French Kiss In The Chaos
Coconut Records: Davy
Madness: The Liberty Of Norton Folgate
Smith Westerns: Smith Westerns

Books
Václav Havel: Leaving
Klaus Fischer: Fallrückzieher Und Mehr…
Dirk Unschuld: Als Der Geißbock Moped Fuhr
Aryanne Oade: Starting And Running A Coaching Business
Cora Besser-Siegmund: Erfolge Zum Wundern
Co-active Coaching — New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life
Live & Work In: New Zealand
Moon — Living Abroad In New Zealand
Shelagh Young: How To Be A Successful Life Coach
Ruth Pink: Denken — kreativ, professionell und systematisch
Hüther: Männer – Das schwache Geschlecht und sein Gehirn
Louise Purwin Zobel: The Travel Writer's Handbook

Various
Practical small file or something, to sort business cards

A Midsummer Night's Dream (not) on Wikipedia

2010-01-27T19:38:00.001+01:00

I added the below paragraph, which apparently is not considered relevant as it is just one of thousands of adaptations. Personally, I still believe it is of interest, as it shows how Shakespeare's work lives on in our post-industrialised and globalising society.

An argument was also that it is not mentioned in academic sources. Well, I must have misunderstood what Wikipedia is all about, as I thought that — as opposed to conventional encyclopædias — it was supposed to be for everyone, and by everyone. Pity. Wanted to share this interesting piece of information.

===Modern performances===
Numerous are the inventive and alternative performances of one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. One example is the multilingual ''Dream 2007'', which the [[New World Theatre Club]] set up under the direction of [[Tony Kingston]] as part of the [[European Capital of Culture]] festivities in [[Luxembourg_(city)|Luxembourg]]. Although set in a post-industrial environment, the original dialogue was kept for the fairies, and translated into German for the upper-class Athenians, Luxembourgish (the first known translation into this language) for the lower-class, whereas the songs were in French, thus depicting the multi-cultural nature of contemporary Luxembourg and Europe, and its conflicts and misunderstandings.[http://www.nwtc.lu/pages/home/previous-shows/2007-dream-2007.php New World Theatre Club: Dream 2007]; ''352'' issue #176 of 19 April 2007 p33 and #189 of 19 July 2007 p20; ''France News'' September 2007 issue

Das IST verdammt lustig! — Woollily funny!

2010-01-26T08:05:00.000+01:00

English translation:

‘No, we did not notice. We do try to count if everybody's home, but usually we fall asleep.’

‘Just like that.’

(v)on Nichtlustig

Ny rejseform inden for EU

2010-01-25T07:49:00.004+01:00

Hvad er det for et grænse-los, man får, hvis man rejser til flere lande?

fra siden EU i kontakt med borgerne

‘There is nothing like real homegrown spaghetti’

2010-01-24T11:13:00.000+01:00

Click on the picture below to watch a hilarious, short clip on spaghetti harvest:
And I used to make people believe that pasta actually grows like wheat on fields, macaroni being the shell and spaghetti the inside. One learns every day…

Background of the clip

Kongelig privilegeret (eller privilegeret kongelig)

2010-01-23T09:53:00.001+01:00

Også på det sproglige område har det danske kongehus i århundreder nyt særlige privilegier. Det viser nedenstående spørgsmål til og svar fra Udenrigsministeriet angående skrivemåden på ambassadeskilte (og øl).

Mit spørgsmål

For nylig var jeg i byen Gdańsk i det nordlige Polen, og lagde tilfældigvis mærke til, at Danmark har et konsulat i byens hovedgade. Hvad jeg også lagde mærke til, var stavemåden på det officielle skilt (det ovale, røde med rigsvåbnet, som man også ser det på ambassader) — her stod nemlig »KONGELIG DANSK KONSULAT«.

Er dette ikke en fejl? Da »konsulat« er et intetkønsord, ville jeg mene, der skulle stå »KONGELIGT DANSK KONSULAT« på sådanne officielle skilte. Jeg har diskuteret det med flere sprogkyndige bekendte, og samlet er der tvivl; måske der er en særlig regel for ordet »kongelig«, at det i dette tilfælde fx ikke er et egentligt tillægsord, men en slags sammensætning med ordet »dansk«?

Svar fra Udenrigsministeriet

I forbindelse med Udenrigsministeriets overvejelser af dit spørgsmål […], har vi konstateret, at der ikke er tale om en fejl, men om en ældre form, som også findes i fx ”Kongelig dansk Gesandtskab”. Som forklaring på fænomenet har bl.a. været peget på den udtalemæssige lighed mellem –t og d- i hhv. kongeligt og dansk, som udtales på samme sted i munden, hvorved der opstår en tilbøjelighed til at ”trække de to lyd sammen”, sådan at den ene, altså –t i ”kongeligt”, forsvinder. Vi har dog ikke villet svare uden at forhøre os hos Dansk Sprognævn, som [forklarer fænomenet] som en ældre form, hvor ”kongelig” optræder ubestemt, muligvis understøttet af en tryksvag udtale, jf. […] ”LEVERANDØR TIL DET KONGELIG DANSKE HOF”.

Ton intégrité est à toi — Your integrity is your own

2010-01-22T09:05:00.004+01:00

»Je devrais me priver de faire ce dont j'ai envie, juste parce que ce n'est pas ce que l'on attend de moi? Me l'interdire serait aller à l'encontre de mes convictions.«
Sophie Cadalen — auteure, actrice et psychanalyste
dans Psychologies Nº292 — Janvier 2010
*****
‘I should deny myself what I feel like doing, just because it is not what is expected of me? To forbid myself from it would be to go against my conviction.’
Sophie Cadalen — author, actress and psychoanalyst
in Psychologies #292 — January 2010

James Cameron's Avatar is a stylish film marred by its racist subtext

2010-01-21T21:16:00.002+01:00

This brilliant, thoughtful and only slightly satirical journalist does hit the nail on the head, writing exactly what I thought when I watched the for some reason so highly praised 'Avatar':

Avatar was a spectacle, I’ll grant you that. The film’s 230-million-dollar budget guaranteed extravagant and often beautiful 3D special effects. But as I left the cinema last night, I couldn’t help questioning the weird mind behind it all. Was it James Cameron’s intention to be so nauseatingly patronising? And how could the famously Left-wing director have failed to pick up on his film’s racist subtext?

I won’t spoil the plot, but here’s the basic set-up: a group of mercenary humans have colonised a faraway planet, called Pandora, in order to extract an enormously valuable mineral found there. Pandora’s “natives” – a race of tall, blue-skinned aliens called the Na’vi – live on an area of land which is set to be mined. They won’t relocate, so the humans attack.

But the Na’vi aren’t your average extra-terrestrials. Blue skin aside, they’re essentially a childish pastiche of the “ethnic”, with recognisably human features. They wear Maasai-style necklaces and beaded jewellery which Cameron has borrowed from tribal East Africa. Their long, dark hair is dreadlocked. Their clothes are apparently Amerindian. They are armed with bows and poisoned arrows, and wear facepaint into battle. The main Na’vi characters are voiced by four black actors: Zoë Saldaña, C. C. H. Pounder, Laz Alonso and Peter Mensah; as well as one Cherokee, Wes Studi. The evil humans, needless to say, are white, male and middle-aged.

James Cameron has been very open about the politics behind Avatar. It’s about how “greed and imperialism tend to destroy the environment,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s a way of looking back on ourselves from this other world.”

If we look at his version of our planet, however, the view is overwhelmingly repellent. Pandora is to Cameron what Africa was to Joseph Conrad – it’s another, fictional ‘Heart of Darkness’, a place where a cruel imperial power subjects what is (perhaps unwittingly) depicted as a lesser race. Chinua Achebe, Conrad’s fiercest critic, wrote that “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality.” Almost the exact same could be said of Avatar.

Take, for example, the relationship between the ethnic Na’vi and the animals which inhabit Pandora. Every interaction between them involves an act of quasi-consummation. The “natives” attach a spindly appendage to whatever raging animal they are trying to tame, resulting in a short struggle followed by an almost post-coital quiet. In another scene, one of the Na’vi is warned not to play with the same appendage or, he is told, “you’ll go blind.” The hint is heavy enough – it’s the same “triumphant bestiality” which Achebe criticised in Heart of Darkness.

By far the most contemptible theme in Avatar involves the hero, a young disabled American called Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington. Before the humans declare war on the Na’vi, Sully is sent to them (in the form of a blue-skinned avatar) in a last ditch attempt to find a diplomatic solution. But, lo and behold, he becomes one of them – sympathising so much with their plight that he decides to lead them into battle against the humans.

As Left-wing conceits go, this one surely tops all the others: the ethnic Na’vi, the film suggests, need the white man to save them because, as a less developed race, they lack the intelligence and fortitude to overcome their adversaries by themselves. The poor helpless natives, in other words, must rely on the principled white man to lead them out of danger.

Yuck. And there I was, thinking this sort of patronising world-view was dying out. But plainly it lives on in Hollywood. Avatar is artistic evidence of the ugly mindset which underlies so much of Left-wing thinking today: the belief that only the superior Western liberal is fit to lead the world into a better future. Other than a whole lot of style, this is all Cameron’s film has to offer – so I make that 230 million dollars wasted.

Will Heaven
in The Telegraph